Allies of Sir Olly Robbins have claimed he was sacked by the prime minister without even being asked to explain his handling of the Peter Mandelson vetting saga.
Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the former Foreign Office chief last week for failing to tell him that Lord Mandelson had failed vetting for the role of ambassador to the US.
Asked on Monday by veteran Tory MP Sir Julian Lewis whether he had sought an explanation from Sir Olly, Sir Keir told the Commons: “I did ask him, and I did not accept his explanation. That is why I sacked him.”
But friends of the former permanent under secretary have hit back, telling The Independent that “no question was asked”.
A source close to Sir Olly told The Independent: “The prime minister told MPs in the House that he had asked Olly Robbins the question about why he did not share the vetting conclusions with him. This is not the case. The timeline is that the prime minister found out Tuesday evening, the first Olly found out was Wednesday morning.
“A telephone conversation did take place, but it was the prime minister telling Olly that he was disgusted and telling him he was sacked. He did not ask Olly for an explanation.”
They noted that Sir Olly had refused to confirm the prime minister’s version of events when he was questioned by Tory MP Aphra Brandreth during his grilling on his role in the vetting saga in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday. Instead, he implied that a legal claim could follow.
When the above version of events was put to No 10, a spokesperson said the prime minister “stood by [his] words”, but declined to answer questions about whether notes were taken or if anyone else was present on the call.
Downing Street sources added that Sir Olly was asked to provide an account ahead of the call with the prime minister, during which he was sacked.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the “whole thing stinks” and suggested that if the claims were true, then the PM would have misled MPs.
She told The Independent: “It is now obvious to everyone that Olly Robbins was just the latest person sacked by Starmer to save the prime minister’s own skin. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Robbins was never asked for an explanation by the prime minister, because really, Starmer was just looking for someone to carry the can for his own decision.
“On Monday, the prime minister said he had received an explanation from Robbins, so this would be yet another thing Starmer is misleading us about. The whole thing stinks.”
Following reports that he had employed lawyers to bring a legal claim over his sacking, Sir Olly told MPs on Tuesday: “I’m in an unknown territory, honestly, for me, personally, about the HR position I am in and what this means for my family. I must remain quiet on that until my advisers have told me what the appropriate thing to do is about it all.”
Ms Brandreth, who had asked him about what discussions took place before his sacking, told the committee: “I asked the question because it appeared to me that [the] PM’s view and Sir Oliver Robbins’ view of events was very different… It seems that the PM, who cares so much about the process, should have asked Sir Oliver quite detailed questions in order to form a view.”
A front-page story by The Independent from September, revealing concerns that Lord Mandelson had failed vetting, has already been used to question Sir Keir’s version of events after he claimed that he and Downing Street only found out about the issue last week.
Jonathan Brash became the first Labour MP to demand that the prime minister stand down after the latest revelation. Asked if Sir Keir should go, he replied “Yeah”, adding that he was “fed up to the back teeth of this psychodrama in Westminster”.
Earlier on Wednesday, the prime minister tried to draw a line under the scandal, telling MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions that Sir Olly’s testimony to the committee “puts to bed all the allegations levelled at me” after claims that he had misled parliament.
He said: “Yesterday, Sir Olly Robbins was asked if he shared [the vetting] decision with me, No 10 or any other ministers. He gave a clear answer: “No.” That puts to bed all the allegations levelled at me by those opposite in relation to dishonesty.
“Last week, they were all saying that it must have been shared with me. Sir Olly was very clear yesterday: it was not. I believe not sharing it was a serious error of judgement.
“That information should have been shared with me and other ministers, and if it had have been, Mandelson would not have been committed to post.”
Under grilling from Ms Badenoch and other MPs, Sir Keir, however, did admit that No 10 had looked to find an ambassadorial role for Matthew Doyle, ahead of sacking him as the prime minister’s director of communications.
Sir Keir said there are “often conversations about other roles” when staff leave jobs “in any organisation”, but added that “nothing came of” the discussions about a foreign posting for Lord Doyle.
The revelations that a role was sought for the then Mr Doyle has caused further embarrassment, as he has since been suspended by Labour because of his close relationship with a convicted paedophile, in a scandal that has echoes of Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Ms Badenoch said: “This is a joke. The prime minister promised them probity. What he has given them is cronyism and an old boys’ club, where Matthew Doyle is being proposed as an ambassador. It is ridiculous.
“We all heard Sir Olly Robbins’s testimony yesterday. The head of the Foreign Office was sacked for the prime minister’s own failings.”
And the issue is not going away, with Sir Keir’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, summoned to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee next week, hours before parliament is due to be prorogued ahead of the King’s Speech on 13 May.
