
Sir Keir Starmer has stood by his decision to sack the former Foreign Office chief over the vetting process for Lord Peter Mandelson and said he faced only the “everyday pressure of Government” to clear the peer’s appointment as ambassador to Washington.
The Prime Minister has maintained that Sir Olly Robbins was wrong not to have told him the outcome of the so-called developed vetting process and insisted he would not have gone ahead with having the peer as his top diplomat to Washington had he known.