𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Sir Keir Starmer is facing the most damaging day of his premiership after being accused by his own MPs of fostering a “toxic culture” at Downing Street — with one Labour backbencher declaring him a “dead man walking.”

The crisis deepened dramatically on Tuesday as Sir Oliver Robbins, sacked last week as head of the Foreign Office, told the foreign affairs select committee that No 10 had placed him under “constant pressure” to approve Lord Mandelson’s security clearance, and accused Downing Street of taking a “dismissive approach” to the vetting process. Officials had even questioned whether checks were needed at all, he revealed.

Sir Oliver also struck back at his former boss, disclosing that Sir Keir had covertly manoeuvred to secure a diplomatic role for a second disgraced peer — a revelation that deepened the sense of crisis surrounding the Prime Minister.

Senior Cabinet figures Yvette Cooper and Ed Miliband compounded the damage by stepping back from the Prime Minister in public — an open display of dissent that underlined the growing fracture between No 10 and its own most senior ministers.

What are Labour MPs saying about Kier Starmer?

Imran Hussain, the Labour MP for Bradford East, told the Commons the scandal went to the heart of how Downing Street operated.

“At the heart of this is a toxic and dismissive culture at No 10. At some point we can not get away from it,” he said. “That divisiveness has led us to this place. This is not a small administration breach, it is a matter of national security.”

Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, said Mandelson’s appointment “reflects a wider direction under the Prime Minister” and warned that a “toxic culture” had been allowed to “take hold of No 10 and the governing of our country.”

One unnamed MP told The Telegraph that Sir Keir’s position was now untenable.

“How long can this zombie administration continue?” they said. “It’s over for him. He can’t come back from this. Someone needs to put an arm around him and say: it’s over.”

What did Robbins say about Starmer?

Sir Oliver told MPs that by the time he arrived at the Foreign Office in January last year, Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador was already being treated as a done deal. He accused Downing Street of bullying the Foreign Office into approving the clearance, saying No 10 had applied “constant pressure” throughout the process.

Dame Emily Thornberry, the committee’s chairman, raised a previous claim that Sir Oliver’s predecessor had been told to “just f—ing approve” the appointment — an instruction reportedly relayed by Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s then chief of staff, to Sir Philip Barton, the top Foreign Office civil servant at the time of Mandelson’s appointment in December 2024.

Sir Oliver said he did not believe McSweeney would use such language and had “no memory” of his predecessor mentioning the call. McSweeney denied the claim on Tuesday afternoon, telling Politico he had not called Sir Philip directly and had not sworn at him.