Top civil servant ousted after British Foreign Office overruled Peter Mandelson vetting

The British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper have lost confidence in Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Olly Robbins over the issue and he will be leaving the job

Peter Mandelson outside his London home following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office in March (Lucy North/PA)

Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure, and a top civil servant is to leave their post after it emerged the British foreign office overruled a security vetting process to clear Peter Mandelson to become UK ambassador to the US.

The British prime minister and British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper have lost confidence in foreign office permanent under-secretary Olly Robbins over the issue and he will be leaving the job, the Press Association understands.

Security officials initially denied the peer clearance, but Foreign Office officials took the rare step of overruling the recommendation.

The British PM was not aware that the former Labour grandee was granted developed vetting against the advice of UK Security Vetting until earlier this week, the Government has said.

He has instructed officials to establish the facts about why vetting was granted, and the foreign office earlier said it is “working urgently” to comply.

Downing Street sources say the British PM is “absolutely furious”.

Reports on Thursday suggested he may make a statement in the Commons on Monday over the matter, but No 10 did not confirm if he would face MPs.

Sir Olly Robbins (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Mr Starmer is due to face the media on Friday alongside French President Emmanuel Macron as he co-hosts a summit on reopening the Strait of Hormuz in Paris, with the pair expected to make a joint statement in the afternoon.

David Lammy, who was foreign secretary when Mr Mandelson was appointed, also did not know the foreign office had overruled the vetting until Thursday afternoon, it is understood.

A report in The Guardian revealed that security officials initially denied the peer clearance but that the Foreign Office overruled the recommendation.

A British government spokesperson later confirmed that “officials in the FCDO” had taken the decision to grant developed vetting against the recommendation.

The British PM has faced calls to stand down over the matter, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch calling it “preposterous” to claim he did not know Mr Mandelson failed security vetting.

She said: “If the Prime Minister doesn’t know what’s happening in his own office, he shouldn’t be in charge of our country. He should go.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Mr Starmer should have told Parliament “at the earliest opportunity” when he learned what had happened earlier this week, rather than having “waited for the media to force the truth out”.

The Green Party and Reform UK have also called for Mr Starmer to resign.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was said to be ‘absolutely furious’ (Leon Neal/PA)

Mr Mandelson, a political appointment rather than a career diplomat, was sacked from his Washington role last September when more details emerged about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.

Mr Starmer has been under fire over the decision to give Mr Mandelson the job despite it being known that his dealings with Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.

Questions over his judgment intensified after the first batch of documents related to the decision published last month showed that he was warned before announcing Mr Mandelson’s ambassadorship of a “general reputational risk” over his association with Epstein.

That warning stemmed from the first part of the checks, carried out by the Cabinet Office, which was based on information in the public domain at the time.

The second was the highly confidential background vetting by security officials, which followed the announcement but came before Mr Mandelson took up his role in February 2025.

Information unearthed in this process – including any concerns – is never shared with ministers, and the result is binary, either clearing the candidate or barring them.

More documents relating to his appointment are yet to be released at the behest of MPs.

Mr Starmer said in February that Mr Mandelson was cleared by security vetting, which he criticised for failing to disprove the former Labour grandee’s lies.

When Morgan McSweeney stepped down as Mr Starmer’s chief of staff in February, he took “full responsibility” for giving his boss advice that resulted in the “wrong” appointment decision, while also calling for the vetting process to be “fundamentally overhauled”.