How Olly Robbins’ knightly charm glossed over burning questions on Mandelson vetting

Former Foreign Office top official’s evidence raises stark issues with ‘the system’ he was seeking to defend The verdict on Sir Olly Robbins’ parliamentary testimony, among fellow knights of the civil service realm at least, was unanimous. Mark Sedwill, a former cabinet secretary, called on the prime minister to “retract his accusations against Olly Robbins and reinstate him”. Sir Simon McDonald, who once held Robbins’ job as top civil servant in the Foreign Office, said if Keir Starmer had only waited to hear his evidence to the foreign affairs select committee he would never have sacked him. Even heavyweights in the media class seemed satisfied with Robbins’ decision to grant Peter Mandelson developed vetting clearance, and not tell Starmer he had done so against the advice of the official vetting agency. The former BBC journalist Jon Sopel declared while watching the evidence: “I am seeing the very best of the civil service.” All of which would suggest that Robbins emerged from the cross-examination victorious, even if it did require – as some observers noted – two litres of water to get him through it. But look more closely at what he actually said and t