It is hard not to grin. Our lawyerly soon-to-be-former Prime Minister, Mr Process, stands accused of, er, failing to follow the proper process.
Olly Robbins was chief mandarin at the Foreign Office until he was unceremoniously thrown under the bus by Starmer in a panicked attempt to find a scapegoat for his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson to the country’s most senior ambassadorial role. Robbins has now applied to the High Court for a judicial review of Starmer’s decision to dismiss him.
The sight of Sir Keir being hoisted by his own petard in his final week in office when he wants to be left alone to focus on booking his tickets to the World Cup final and unscrewing the lightbulbs from the Downing Street flat, is undeniably rather funny. It is also a reminder that as Prime Minister his sanctimony was matched only by his ineptitude. Clearly he can’t even fire someone correctly. Having led an administration that sought to strengthen workers’ rights against dismissal, there is also a very Two Tier Keir way about his attempt to ignore the most basic tenets of employment law and dismiss the erstwhile Foreign Office chief without due process.
Robbins pointed out in his statement that the legal action ‘would have been unnecessary if the Prime Minister had simply apologised for his mistake and made amends for the distress and cost it has caused me and my family’. It is a shame that Starmer could not stomach that humble pie, so saving taxpayers from footing the legal costs the government will inevitably now rack up. If the government loses and Starmer was inclined to rescue a little of his reputation he might consider paying the damages out of his own pocket. Though for a man that does not even buy his own suits, it would be imprudent to hold out much hope.
