Pressure on Starmer as he prepares for PMQs while Mandelson row continuespublished at 07:21 BST 22 April

07:21 BST 22 April

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Some weeks it’s hard to predict what Kemi Badenoch will ask about at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). This is not one of those weeks.

She will presumably seize on the elements of Olly Robbins’s evidence yesterday where he described the pressure from No 10 to approve and expedite Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

No 10 denies that they put pressure on the Foreign Office. There is also an important nuance here which is that Robbins’s argument is that he withstood the pressure, and that his decision to approve Mandelson’s security clearance was unrelated to the pressure he felt.

His accusation matters nevertheless, because at the core of why Keir Starmer professes to be so angry now is that he says he would have cancelled the appointment of Mandelson had he known about the vetting concerns.

Robbins, on the other hand, describes a No 10 so determined to press ahead with the appointment that it was even mooted at one point that there be no vetting at all.

Those two accounts are hard to reconcile.

This morning, Starmer’s team is drawing some comfort from the fact that Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP who chaired yesterday’s hearing, has backed Starmer’s decision to sack Robbins, saying he should have told No 10 more details of the vetting process.

Dan Carden, another Labour MP on the committee, takes a different view. He’s said Robbins was “put in an impossible position” and has “had the goalposts moved”, adding: “Why he was sacked... still needs answering”.

It will be a PMQs where it’s not just what Badenoch asks that matters, but also the mood among Labour MPs sitting behind Starmer while he answers.

Olly Robbins spent almost two-and-a-half hours giving evidence to MPs on the Foreign Affairs committee on Tuesday.

Here is a reminder of the key things that he said:

• Robbins told MPs yesterday that when he began the top job in the Foreign Office in January 2025, there was "already a very very strong expectation" from No 10 that Mandelson "needed to be in post" as quickly as possible
• He spoke of a "dismissive" attitude in Number 10 to Mandelson's vetting, but insisted that his department followed the process "rigorously"
• He told MPs that he was briefed that the body that conducts vetting considered Mandelson a "borderline case" and were "leaning towards" recommending that clearance be denied
• Asked about the impact on the government if Mandelson's clearance had been denied, Robbins said: "I think it would have been very difficult indeed"

A member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee says he understands why Olly Robbins may feel "angry and upset" by his dismissal.

John Whittingdale tells BBC Breakfast that Tuesday's meeting of the committee was an "extraordinary session", later adding that Lord Mandelson should never have been appointed as the UK ambassador to Washington "in the first place".

Asked whether he agrees that Robbins should have been sacked, Whittingdale says that he does not, and goes on to say: "I understand why he feels angry and upset by that, and that was apparent when he was giving evidence to us yesterday."

Whittingdale adds: "We still don't know why it was that the prime minister was so determined to appoint somebody to this incredibly important position who was so obviously the wrong person to be in it."

Questions over who knew what and when about the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador continue to be asked, seven months after his sacking from the top job in Washington.

Here's a reminder of how this row has played out:

Keir Starmer will face fresh questions from MPs later today, after Olly Robbins's evidence to MPs over Lord Mandelson's vetting for the US ambassador job.

Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions session comes after Robbins - former top civil servant in the Foreign Office - accused Downing Street of taking a "dismissive attitude" to vetting during Mandelson's appointment to the Washington post.

He also said that there was "constant pressure" to get Mandelson into the job.

Robbins was sacked last week after it emerged that the peer had been sent on the diplomatic mission despite officials raising security concerns, without telling Starmer.

The PM will be in the Commons from 12:00 BST, but stick with us as we bring you all of the latest updates and analysis.

Image source, PA Media