Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, to be questioned by MPs

Exclusive: McSweeney summoned by foreign affairs select committee in rare step, as Mandelson vetting row continues

Morgan McSweeney is facing a showdown with MPs who will grill him on whether he placed extreme pressure on the Foreign Office to approve Peter Mandelson as ambassador.

The prime minister’s former chief of staff will be questioned next Tuesday by the foreign affairs select committee over allegations made by the former Foreign Office permanent secretary Olly Robbins, who said No 10 had questioned why Mandelson should be subject to any vetting.

Robbins, who was sacked by Keir Starmer after the Guardian revealed formal vetting concerns were overruled, said there had been a “dismissive” attitude from Downing Street towards security vetting.

McSweeney will be asked by MPs to also respond to allegations by Robbins that another ambassadorial post was sought for Starmer’s outgoing communications chief Matthew Doyle, who was later made a peer.

McSweeney, who left No 10 in February, has been adamant he did not know that Mandelson had failed his security vetting, which was then overridden by the Foreign Office.

It is highly unusual for Downing Street chiefs of staff to appear before Commons committees even after they have left post, giving MPs the rare opportunity to question one of the most powerful figures in recent Labour history.

The committee has also asked a number of other key officials to appear, including Philip Barton, Robbins’ predecessor as Foreign Office permanent secretary, who was in post when Mandelson’s appointment was announced and handed over to Olly Robbins in January.

Ian Collard, the Foreign Office’s then director of security, who briefed Robbins on UKSV’s findings, has also been summoned. Cat Little, the permanent secretary to the Cabinet Office, will appear on Thursday.

Little, who has been at the heart of the row between the Foreign Office and her department, is expected to set out a counterpoint to the evidence given by Robbins earlier this week.

MPs are expected to question Little on why she did not inform Starmer immediately when she discovered the vetting failure. The Guardian revealed last week that she, along with the head of the civil service, Antonia Romeo, had been aware since March.

Robbins told MPs on Tuesday that No 10 had created an “atmosphere of pressure” that made it impossible to deny clearance for Mandelson and had taken a “dismissive” attitude to vetting.

Emily Thornberry, the foreign affairs committee chair, asked whether it had been McSweeney, to which Robbins said it was mainly the prime minister’s private office, which is staffed by civil servants. But he added: “I think that the private office would only have been [putting on] this pressure themselves if they were under pressure.”

McSweeney quit his role in February over Mandelson’s appointment, saying he took “full responsibility” for advising the prime minister to appoint Mandelson, who had been a close ally and political mentor.

The senior No 10 adviser’s position had grown increasingly untenable as pressure on Starmer mounted over the scandal, which followed the release of emails underlining the extent of Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Mandelson scandal dominated PMQs on Wednesday, with Starmer coming under fire from the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, and Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, over the issue. The prime minister said Robbins’s evidence “puts to bed all the allegations levelled at me” after claims he had misled parliament.

However, Starmer appeared to confirm that No 10 had tried to find an ambassadorial posting for his former director of communications. “Matthew Doyle worked for many years in public service for me as PM and other ministers,” he said. “When people leave roles there are often conversations about other roles, but nothing came of this.”

Little obtained the summary document on Mandelson’s vetting at the end of March and several weeks later, after taking legal advice and making other checks, she informed the prime minister. Sources said she had found it difficult to get information from the Foreign Office.

The Guardian understands that Little appeared in private before parliament’s intelligence and security committee on Tuesday. The committee is understood to be furious at the lack of crucial documents relating to Robbins’s decision to overturn the recommendation to deny Mandelson security clearance, and his failure to record notes of important meetings.

Collard is expected to be questioned on whether he briefed Robbins that Mandelson was a “borderline” case rather than having failed vetting, a central point of contention between Robbins and No 10. Barton has been asked to appear to give evidence on whether he also perceived there to be significant pressure from No 10 to approve the appointment of Mandelson.