The prime minister’s decision to send Lord Mandelson to Washington is playing out like a horror film on repeat for Sir Keir Starmer.
The saga has now claimed another casualty — Sir Olly Robbins, the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, has effectively been removed from his role.
Some opposition figures and members of the Labour Party think this could still threaten the prime minister’s position.
Here’s how Thursday unfolded.
Shortly after 15:00 BST, the Guardian published a story saying Lord Mandelson had failed his security vetting clearance and that the Foreign Office had overruled that decision.
I spent nearly three hours trying to get a response from the Foreign Office, Downing Street, then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s team and the Cabinet Office. None engaged. Normally, when something is inaccurate or overstated, calls come back within seconds. This time they did not.
Opposition parties quickly assumed the Guardian’s claims had substance and one by one went to cameras and microphones to allege the prime minister had misled the House of Commons — a charge that, if knowing, would demand his resignation.
As I prepared to report live for the BBC News at Six, a government statement arrived saying neither the prime minister nor any minister had been aware that this was the conclusion reached. Those opposition figures returned to their cameras.
“How on Earth could he have been so lacking in curiosity about the process?” they asked.
Sir Keir is expected to address Parliament, likely on Monday, to explain what he knew and when. I’m told he learned on Tuesday evening while the government was reviewing documents about Lord Mandelson that Parliament has demanded be published.
I understand Sir Keir is furious. Several former Downing Street figures insist they had no prior knowledge. Friends of Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s chief of staff at the time, say he didn’t know either. I’m also told Lord Mandelson himself was unaware.
The suggestion within government is that the Foreign Office knew but failed to inform anyone — or at least did not ensure the foreign secretary or the prime minister were told.
That breakdown is what prompted Sir Keir and the current foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, to push Sir Olly Robbins out. Sir Olly has not publicly commented.
Some have suggested the vetting advice may not have been a definitive fail but that the Foreign Office treated it as such while others did not — but that still doesn’t explain why the Foreign Office’s conclusion wasn’t passed on.
We’ve spoken to Labour MPs about their views.
“I think we’ve now reached the stage where the prime minister was blissfully unaware is a good explanation. That’s where we are,” one said.
Another was “lost for words.”
A long-standing critic of Downing Street told us: “Surely the cabinet now see it’s dead,” implying the prime minister’s tenure is seriously compromised.
This is precisely the last thing Sir Keir needed — and it is unlikely to be the end of the story.
