‘Very bad for Starmer’ - sacked civil servant turns on government over Mandelson

Peter Mandelson's appointment as ambassador by Sir Keir Starmer to the US was a rush-job, carried out under an 'atmosphere of pressure' from 10 Downing Street and a 'dismissive attitude' to security vetting. That's the claim of Sir Olly Robbins, the sacked head of the foreign office as he was grilled by parliament's foreign affairs committee. So, is it now clear what happened behind the scenes? No 10 denies Robbins’ characterisation of events, but could this still be damning for Starmer's premiership or has the PM's decision to sack his senior mandarin been vindicated? On this episode of the Fourcast, Paul McNamara was joined by Labour MP Preet Kour Gill and also by one of Olly Robbins predecessors as head of the foreign office Lord Ricketts and former Labour advisor and political commentator Sonia Sodha.

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‘Very bad for Starmer’ - sacked civil servant turns on government over Mandelson is an episode from The Fourcast by Channel 4 News.

This episode is 00:37:08 long.

This episode was published on Apr 21, 2026.

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