Sacked civil servant says it was right not to tell PM that Mandelson had failed vetting – a view Starmer rejects
In the last 24 hours, the two men at the heart of the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal have given their version of events: Keir Starmer, the prime minister, and Olly Robbins, the man he sacked as the head civil servant at the Foreign Office.
Robbins’ testimony to the foreign affairs select committee on Tuesday completes much of the picture as to why Mandelson was given security clearance against the advice of vetting officials.
But there are several points on which Starmer and Robbins disagree. Here are some of them.
Robbins detailed at length on Tuesday the pressure he and his predecessor, Philip Barton, came under to appoint Mandelson quickly, saying it helped to explain why he felt he needed to overrule vetting officials’ recommendation to deny the Labour peer security clearance.
