British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Monday, April 20, 2026, to face a confrontation in parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

The former civil servant who oversaw the approval of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Britain’s ambassador to Washington has said he felt “political pressure” to move the decision quickly despite “security concerns”.“Former Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week amid a widespread scandal, leading to calls for the prime minister to resign. Mandelson was removed from his post in September last year, after just nine months on the job, after more information emerged about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted American sex offender who died in prison in 2019.“There was an atmosphere of pressure from the prime minister’s office and a very, very strong expectation that Mandelson needed to be in office and in the US as soon as possible,” Robins told the House of Commons foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, a day after Starmer was questioned by MPs over how the appointment was cleared.“There was a generally dismissive attitude towards the security vetting process,” he said.Robbins further said that the investigating agency considered Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” granting him a security clearance. However, the Foreign Office still approved.He clarified that the “security concerns” were not related to Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein. When lawmakers questioned him about what led the government’s investigative agency to flag Mandelson as a potential security risk, he declined to say.For his part, Starmer acknowledged that the appointment was a “mistake” and said he would have reconsidered it had he known about investigative concerns. However, he placed the responsibility on Foreign Office officials, accusing them of failing to inform him about the issues and going ahead with the approval despite them.He described it as “frankly shocking” that he was not told about the failed security check conducted in January 2025, insisting he only learned about it last week.(with AP input)