How does Keir Starmer recover from the Olly Robbins bombshell?
4/21/202644 min
Olly Robbins - the foreign office top civil servant fired by Keir Starmer on Thursday - gave his version of events today. He described an atmosphere of immense pressure over the Peter Mandelson appointment and suggested Downing Street weren’t that interested in the vetting process at all.
Was he bullied into giving Mandelson the job? Was Starmer right to sack Robbins? And why was he hunting for another ambassadorial role for another friend of another paedophile? It’s all getting silly.
We talk to the chair of the committee Emily Thornberry about what she just heard.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Emily Maitlis· Host0:05
Keir Starmer came to office saying that he wanted to clean up politics. They weren't going to have this constant round of scandal, and coverup, and misbehavior. And yet, where are we now? Mates, and wives of mates, and husbands of mates, and this person said it was like WAGs City Central.
Jon Sopel· Host0:27
I think processes are going to change a bit as a result of this whole fiasco.
Emily Maitlis· Host0:32
Another friend of another pedophile being pushed into another top-notch ambassadorial role. I think it is almost impossible to see how Starmer comes back from that.
Jon Sopel· Host0:45
The, uh, Morgan McSweeney, the chief of staff, rang Sir Philip, uh, and said, "In terms stronger than those that I can use before the watershed."
Emily Maitlis· Host0:54
I think you should.
Jon Sopel· Host0:54
Well, I, I, I'll just say that it was just approve it with a, with, um, s-terms stronger than that. Does that accord with your impression?
Emily Maitlis· Host1:03
Just [beep] approve it. Was the pressure to approve Peter Mandelson in the job at the heart of what happened in that critical vetting process we now know so much about?
Jon Sopel· Host1:17
The account from Sir Olly Robbins of what happened and why is so starkly different from what Keir Starmer had to tell the Commons, that you're left wondering now