{"id":544328,"date":"2026-04-22T08:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T08:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/544328\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T08:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T08:42:10","slug":"keir-starmer-to-face-pmqs-after-ex-foreign-office-chiefs-mandelson-evidence-live-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/544328\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer to face PMQs after ex-Foreign Office chief&#8217;s Mandelson evidence &#8211; live updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" height=\"2.5rem\" width=\"9.8125rem\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-h608ny-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Pressure on Starmer as he prepares for PMQs while Mandelson row continuespublished at 07:21 BST<\/p>\n<p>07:21 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/34ffac2f-7f37-4fd4-a556-a1061819b8d0.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Henry Zeffman<br \/>Chief political correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some weeks it\u2019s hard to predict what Kemi Badenoch will ask about at Prime Minister\u2019s Questions (PMQs). This is not one of those weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She will presumably seize on the elements of Olly Robbins\u2019s evidence yesterday where he described the pressure from No 10 to approve and expedite Lord Mandelson\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">No 10 denies that they put pressure on the Foreign Office. There is also an important nuance here which is that Robbins\u2019s argument is that he withstood the pressure, and that his decision to approve Mandelson\u2019s security clearance was unrelated to the pressure he felt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His accusation matters nevertheless, because at the core of why Keir Starmer professes to be so angry now is that he says he would have cancelled the appointment of Mandelson had he known about the vetting concerns. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Robbins, on the other hand, describes a No 10 so determined to press ahead with the appointment that it was even mooted at one point that there be no vetting at all. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Those two accounts are hard to reconcile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This morning, Starmer\u2019s team is drawing some comfort from the fact that Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP who chaired yesterday\u2019s hearing, has backed Starmer\u2019s decision to sack Robbins, saying he should have told No 10 more details of the vetting process. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Dan Carden, another Labour MP on the committee, takes a different view. He\u2019s said Robbins was \u201cput in an impossible position\u201d and has \u201chad the goalposts moved\u201d, adding: \u201cWhy he was sacked&#8230; still needs answering\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It will be a PMQs where it\u2019s not just what Badenoch asks that matters, but also the mood among Labour MPs sitting behind Starmer while he answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pressure on Starmer as he prepares for PMQs while Mandelson row continuespublished at 07:21 BST 07:21 BST Henry&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-544328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}