Downing Street rallies behind Starmer as he is expected to face ‘judgment day’

Downing Street has rallied to defend Sir Keir Starmer as he is expected to face a crunch week in his premiership following the latest twists in the scandal over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.

Senior Government figures told the Guardian newspaper that the Prime Minister is facing “judgment day” next week, when Sir Olly Robbins – who was sacked this week as chief civil servant at the Foreign Office over the latest revelations about the scandal – is expected to appear before a committee of MPs.

No 10 on Friday night released a readout of a meeting between Sir Keir and senior civil servants that appeared to corroborate that the Prime Minister only found out on Tuesday that Lord Mandelson was cleared for his role as Britain’s representative in Washington against the advice of security officials.

The Foreign Office has been blamed for clearing the peer in January 2025 to begin as US ambassador, despite him failing a secure vetting process.

The Prime Minister has said he was “absolutely furious”, and described the failure to inform him as “staggering”.

Sir Olly, who was only weeks into his job as Foreign Office permanent secretary at the time, was sacked on Thursday as he had lost the confidence of Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

He is expected to speak to the Foreign Affairs Committee as early as next Tuesday, a day after Sir Keir will update the House of Commons on the latest revelations about Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

The Guardian also reported on Friday that Antonia Romeo, the head of the civil service, and Cabinet Office permanent secretary Catherine Little, had found out before the Prime Minister about Lord Mandelson’s failure to gain vetting.

The readout of Tuesday’s meeting gave credence to this, as Ms Little had received information about the vetting as part of the process to release files related to Lord Mandelson’s appointment which MPs voted for in February.

“On reviewing the file she had therefore learned that the recommendation from the vetting officer had been that DV (Developed Vetting) should not be granted to Peter Mandelson,” the readout said.

The Cabinet Office denied that this meant the senior civil servant had sat on the details, while a Government source said: “Cat has been the one doggedly fighting Olly Robbins to get the documents out of his clutches and into the public domain.

“This is a laughable attempt to shift blame from the actual person who kept the PM in the dark.”

The leaders of the major opposition parties have all called for Sir Keir to resign over the latest revelations, with Kemi Badenoch claiming the Prime Minister had misled Parliament and the public.

Lord Mandelson, a political appointment rather than a career diplomat, was sacked from his Washington role last September when more details emerged about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.

Sir Keir was already under fire over the decision to give Lord Mandelson the job, despite it being known that his dealings with Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.