5 Bombshell Revelations As Sacked Civil Servant Piles More Pressure On Starmer

Olly Robbins's "utterly devastating" evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee on the Mandelson scandal blew a huge hole in the PM's version of events.

Pressure on Keir Starmer over the Lord Mandelson scandal is set to intensify as a result of the “utterly devastating” testimony of the senior civil servant he sacked.

Olly Robbins’ spent nearly two-and-a-half answering questions from MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

His appearance came a day after the prime minister told the Commons it “beggars belief” he was not told that Mandelson had not been cleared by UK Security Vetting before being appointed the UK’s ambassador to Washington.

As the top civil servant in the Foreign Office at the time, it was Robbins who decided that the then Labour peer should be approved for “developed vetting” – the highest level of security clearance – thereby letting him take up the post.

Starmer only found out about this last Tuesday, and two days later dismissed Robbins from his job.

Allies of the former civil servant had said in advance of his committee appearance that he would........

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