No one can look Starmer in the eye … and the Mandy saga is not going away | John Crace

This is the end, beautiful friend. It is the tragedy of almost all prime ministers that they are the last person to realise the game is up. Their race is run. The backbenchers are the first to know. They spend time in their constituencies

Britain’s military dependence on US ‘no longer tenable’, says former Nato chief

Britain’s high military dependence on the US is “no longer tenable” and the UK has to become increasingly independent of the special relationship with Washington, a former Nato chief has said.George Robertson, who last week accused British leaders of a “corrosive complacency” towards defence, said on Wednesday that the traditional allies were diverging over values – and that even after Donald Trump leaves the White House, the separation was likely to continue.Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence minister and Nato secretary general, highlighted Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran, his decision to levy tariffs on traditional allies and, “most jarringly”, he said, the threat to wrest Greenland from Denmark.“All of these illustrate a growing divergence between Westminster and Washington,” Robertson said at a seminar at the Chatham House thinktank.He said the diplomatic tone from the White House had “reached a historic low point” with Trump’s repeated public criticisms of the UK

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

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

Taxes on UK workers have risen at fastest rate in rich world, says OECD

Taxes on workers in Britain rose at the fastest rate among the world’s richest economies last year, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.With Labour under pressure on the economy amid the Iran war, the OECD said a key measure of the total tax paid by workers and their employers rose by the most in the 38-member club of rich nations in 2025.In its annual study of taxes on work across the developed world, the Paris-based organisation said Britain’s “tax wedge” increased by 2.45 percentage points last year.The tax wedge estimates total taxes on labour paid by employees and employers, minus cash benefits received by working households – in effect the gap between what an employer pays to hire a worker and what that person takes home in net pay

Jennie Formby, Labour’s former general secretary, says she has joined Greens

A former Labour general secretary has defected to the Green party, in the latest sign that allies of Jeremy Corbyn are moving in large numbers to Zack Polanski’s party.Jennie Formby, who managed the Labour party from 2018 to 2020, told the Guardian she had signed up as a Green party member and intended to campaign for it before May’s local elections.Formby is the latest senior ally of Corbyn to defect to the Greens, even as the former Labour leader tries to establish Your Party, his own leftwing alternative to Labour.The defection of figures such as Formby, the former Labour adviser James Meadway and the former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll offers the Greens a policy and organisational heft they previously lacked, but also threatens to distance the party from its environmental roots.Formby said: “Zack and the Greens are not scared to talk about economic justice and tax increases

Robbins response to ‘cover-up’ question reveals debate over Mandelson vetting file

Olly Robbins responded to a question about an alleged “cover-up” on Tuesday by confirming that government officials had considered withholding Peter Mandelson’s secretive vetting documents from parliament.Robbins, who was sacked by Keir Starmer as the Foreign Office’s top civil servant last week, appeared to confirm a report in the Guardian that senior officials were debating whether to withhold from parliament sensitive documents that revealed the vetting agency did not believe Mandelson should get clearance.Robbins was asked by Alan Gemmell, a Labour MP, about whether officials had resisted sharing Mandelson’s vetting file “potentially as part of some cover-up” after the Cabinet Office obtained the document in late March this year.Robbins did not address the cover-up allegation but acknowledged there had been a “debate” among senior officials in multiple departments about whether or not the document needed to be shared with parliament.He described the file as existing in a “hermetically sealed box”, adding: “To open that box is to do something that has long-term, damaging and chilling implications for UK national security

Olly Robbins’ account of Mandelson vetting piles pressure on Keir Starmer

The civil servant sacked by Keir Starmer has given a devastating account of his government, saying Downing Street put huge pressure on the civil service to approve the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador despite the concerns of vetting officials.Olly Robbins, the former top official at the Foreign Office, said No 10 took a “dismissive” attitude to vetting, and Mandelson was given access to the Foreign Office building and to “higher-classification briefings” before he was granted security clearance.In more than two hours of precisely worded and detailed testimony to the foreign affairs select committee (FAC), Robbins said No 10 had created an “atmosphere of pressure” which made it almost impossible to deny clearance for Mandelson – who had already been announced for the senior diplomatic posting.He also confirmed that senior government officials – including within the Cabinet Office – had been in dispute last week, as revealed by the Guardian, over whether to release documents relating to Mandelson’s vetting through the humble address process.Starmer has come under intense pressure over the Mandelson scandal, with criticism even from within his own cabinet

As the PM’s fate lay in doubt, Labour MPs plotted the party’s future direction

Less than a mile from the select committee room in Portcullis House where Olly Robbins held the prime minister’s future in his hands, Labour MPs were publicly workshopping how the party might look under new leadership.It came in the guise of the Good Growth Foundation’s conference, but felt like a Labour leadership beauty parade on Pall Mall. The former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner was a last-minute addition to the programme but the most talked-about guest.Rayner in her speech was dismissive of the scandal occupying Westminster over Peter Mandelson, urging the government to refocus on everyday hardships. The Iran war – and the impending economic shock – would require government intervention

Anger remains white hot in Whitehall over Olly Robbins sacking

Fury within Whitehall about the treatment of Olly Robbins remains white hot several days on from Keir Starmer’s decision to sack the senior Foreign Office civil servant.“It’s just total self-serving, narrow, selfish, political-endgame stuff,” said one supporter of Robbins, who was dismissed for failing to tell the prime minister that the now disgraced former US ambassador Peter Mandelson had not passed UK security vetting.There is strong support for Robbins within Whitehall, with senior civil servants said to believe he was in effect sacked for doing what No 10 wanted by swiftly passing Mandelson through vetting, and putting in place mitigations to get around the security concerns.But on the political side, civil servants have expressed incredulity and anger at what they see as the prime minister being blindsided by another Mandelson-related bomb. Starmer has described the decision not to tell him about the failed vetting as “staggering”