The prime minister said on Friday that it was “unforgivable” and “staggering” that senior officials did not tell him that Mandelson failed a security vetting process weeks before he took up his role as ambassador to Washington.
Olly Robbins was forced out of his job as permanent secretary of the Foreign Office on Thursday after it was revealed his department granted Mandelson developed vetting clearance against the advice of the relevant agency.
So, acshully, Mandy didn’t fail. Beause the clearance was issued. Even if against advice, but it’s the ministry which decides and issues.
What fun, eh?
Starmer’s going to walk away from this looking the injured party in many eyes but he set it all in motion.
He put pressure on the FO to accept Mandelson against there better judgement and appointed him publicly before the vetting was done, how do you walk back from that if he fails vetting?
The pressure on Robbins’ predecessor was such that he had a breakdown and Robbins was appointed in to this mess, what was he to do in this situation, especially as he isn’t supposed to share vetting details with politicians?
Robbins found himself in a Morton’s Fork, he could break the law and advise Starmer of the contents of the vetting or refuse vetting and create one of the unholiest of political rows since time began because Starmer had effectively said make it happen when appointed Mandelson.
I’ve no sympathy for Robbins, but I also don’t think he should be yet another scapegoat for Starmer’s incompetence and lack of political leadership.
OT, but after his traitorous attempts to sabotage Brexit, bull-necked Olly should have been in jail, not running the FCDO.
Agreed.
The other delicious irony in all this is that Starmer was the one who picked up on the idea of the long forgotten humble address to make life hard for the Tories during Brexit. Apparently he was warned at the time by a Tory minister that it would come back to bite him, and it has because the Tory humble address kicked off the Mandelson documents release which led to the vetting being uncovered.
I had missed that. Quite delicious!
A theory of mine is that Bull-neck and TTK as fanatical europhiliacs wanted to have Mandelslime, a former EU Commissioner, as UK Ambassador in Washington where he’d be an asset for their cause…
Civil servants always fail upwards.
He looks a disagreeable piece of work. Is he?
He may be a perfectly nice chap but the stories of how he gloated about stitching up the Brexit negotiations make that doubtful.
Shirley he could have come back with the simple message that Mandy had failed* developed vetting and do you still want to continue with the appointment in these circumstances? He’s quite right that the reasons for failure should be kept confidential, nobody wants the whole office to know about their penchant for Ukrainian rent boys.
* there are rumours that he didn’t ‘fail’, rather that there wasn’t time for the vetting process to be fully completed. Perhaps we’ll learn more next week when Olly is in front of the Select Committee.
It’s a two-step process with a rule that says if you pass stage two then you’ve passed vetting. A 6 year old could write a logic gate for this passing the input from step one onto the second always. Sir Keir Starmer is 63.
Apparently Mandy failed because he was a Chinese asset rather than being nonce adjacent.
The failure because the foreign office didn’t want the competition?
I wish I could thumbs up this comment more than once!
“Olly Robbins was forced out of his job “
Or was paid off to take the blame.
“… Senior officials did not tell him …”
Of course, this must be exactly what happened.
Incidentally, when is the rent boy trial again?
April 27th
Thanks. We should send a reporter.
I’m sure we can rely on our MSM to cover it fully…
The problem was that Mandelson’s network and background made him a perfect fit for the role. Rejecting him would always have been about weighing the pluses and minuses and rejection would probably have been a career ending move or as it turns out simply “overlooked”.
But for the media’s crusade against anyone who ever seen Epstein from less than a mile away, Mandelson would probably be still be in his role. Probably doing a good job, and his security vetting failure would be a forgotten footnote.
Still in place passing US secrets to China, and the US would never find out or complain if he did?
They finally got Swalwell because he’s been a Chinese spy for years.
More a case the Democrats needed to throw him under the bus to reduce their chances of ending up with two Republicans going head to head for the Californian governorship. His peccadillos have been common knowledge for years, suddenly now he’s not wanted by the Democrat leadership they are splashed all over the media and are important enough to drive him out of the California race. And he’s not being chucked out over spying issues, more just bog standard politician rapey ones.
Strange (to me) that a UK Cameron adviser is now a US citizen bidding for Governor of California. He used to be on Fox news when I was in the US. A slot on Fox obviously prepares you for any government role.
Oh, it’s Steve Hilton, for those who rely on UK MSM.
I like the argument that Signor Trumpo is qualified for British citizenship through his Ma so could, perhaps, apply for it and then stand as a Reform candidate.
How about Tom Tugendhat: did he renounce his Frog citizenship before he stood for Tory leader? His (rather impressive) Wokeypedia entry doesn’t mention his double citizenship but Google’s AI confirms that he didn’t give up his Frog one.
Just to note, again, that you don’t even have to be a Brit to stand as an MP – therefore, nor to be PM. Certain Commonwealth (mostly Dominion I think now) or Irish qualifies.
You don’t have to be a real person it seems – we currently have a muppet as PM…..
Obvs. Bonar Law was a Canadian. In those days, mind, nobody thought of Canadians as truly foreign (except maybe the Quebecois?).
Of course Boris could run for POTUS. He just needs a gig on Fox.
It’s an idea – Trump became a “personality” by imitating Alan Sugar (now a Labour Peer) on Apprentice. Boris is even more of a TV personality and the average US voter wouldn’t notice his record in government (or someone could compare it with Ken Livingstone which makes Boris look like the divine Augustus).
“They finally got Swalwell because he’s been in a Chinese spy for years.”
You missed a word there.
The problem was that Mandelson’s network and background made him a perfect fit for the role. Rejecting him would always have been about weighing the pluses and minuses and rejection would probably have been a career ending move or as it turns out simply “overlooked”.
Tim Shipman from the Speccie has been making the point since it started going wrong that if Starmer had said that Mandelson was the right person for the job and we took a risk he’d have been getting more sympathy now. Instead we get the automatic answering machine droning on about “process”.
Starmer must have said the equivalent of ‘Who will rid me of this turbulent priest’, maybe ‘Who will get this dodgy chancer in place in DC’. And everybody understood what was required and he kept it at arm’s length.
However, now he’s saying a big boy did it and ran away.
We’re about to find that Robbins followed the statutory process to the letter and has been constructively dismissed.
It would be amusing if Robbins filed an unfair dismissal claim.
I don’t think you can if you take a negotiated settlement, unless things have changed.
When I took one in 2009 they paid for my lawyer and she checked the settlement and I had to sign a letter saying I waived all other rights.
My e-mail told me that Unherd’s leading article’s entitled “Starmer’s weaponised incompetence…” About sums it up.
The hilarious thing is that as Charles Moore points out, the whole episode is a failure of process, which has all statutorily been outsourced to officials. Just like quangos. Robbins had no requirement to tell ministers of the decision and a duty to keep the reason secret. He was trying to please his boss.
“Mr. Process” Starmer failed to understand the process or its implications. The irony is sweet.
More than sweet – delicious!!
“He was trying to please his boss.”
More likely doing what he was told to do by Morgan McSweeney. Hence why MMS’s phone was ‘stolen’………
You have a point there.
I wonder whether Robbins is a Labour Party member? Most of the rest of the Civil Service seems to be.
Sir Keir: titled Remainer
Sir “Olly”: titled Remainer
Lord Mandelson: titled Remainer
And these people are still baffled as to why the people voted against them in the Referendum and why Nigel Farage gets so many votes …
It’s time these toytown ‘life titles’ were abolished and hereditary peerages revived for genuinely exceptional service to the nation.
The Grauniad and its acolytes actively disbelieve in heritability of talent (and they carefully avoid discussing whether blue eyes can be inherited). Or, at least, *claim* to disbelieve it in the teeth of evidence.
Sixty-odd years ago I ran a probability calculation on the IQ of my siblings and the sixth form of my prep school and the answer was that we shouldn’t expect this (probability much less than 0.5) to occur *anywhere *in a world population of 7 billion (let alone a UK population of 50-odd million) if IQ was randomly distributed with no regard to parentage.
A millennium ago titles and the associated lands were often awarded for success in battle and the survival of the heirs depended on their inheriting the ability to win battles. Most (but not all) did survive.
It is plausible, but not certain, that a genetic disposition to work for the common good when you are rich enough not to worry about where the next meal is coming from is inheritable – in which case Theophrastus is right..
Dunno if it was about “common good” , but “heredity” was a Thing…
Peeps were fully aware of how bloodlines worked, and the whole Nobility concept was originally about “the best stock”.
Along with a *very healthy* bit of pragmatic meritocratism….. Especially at the lower end of nobility..
Nobility started declining when they conveniently started ignoring the bit about Culling the Herd..
The Spanish Habsburgs are a famous example but *most* of the european High Nobility had a serious consanginuity problem by the high medieval period. And they kept insisting on partners being of “the right lineage”….
The lower tiers stayed more pragmatic, married Money, and in general did better than the “higher” tiers…
Note that this is not to be confused with the Money that came into power and adopted what they *thought* was the practices and airs of Nobility…
The Bourgeouis/high Middle Class managed to do in three generations what the Habsburgs took 12….
It’s the because/dispite misunderstanding again. He *passed* the vetting *despite* the background check, when he should have *failed* the vetting *because* of the background check.
It was Harry Truman who put a sign on his desk announcing “The buck stops here”.
Somebody should tell Charmless about it. (He’d need to be told; he seems to be a dismally ignorant little chap.)
His sign would say “I know nothing”.
Private Eye had a picture of Harold Wilson at his desk with the sign
“The Buck Starts Here”
Like any good Whitehall farce you don’t need to follow the plot, just enjoy the pratfalls.