‘Thrown under the bus’: Robbins to defend himself over Mandelson vetting Politics Sir Olly Robbins is set to mount a defence of his decision to approve Mandelson’s appointment to Washington after allies accused Starmer of scapegoating him and throwing him “under the bus”. The prime minister sacked the head of the Foreign Office on Thursday night before accusing him of an “unforgivable” failure to warn him that [...]
Top Foreign Office civil servant ousted over latest Mandelson bombshell Politics The top civil servant in the Foreign Office has been ousted after losing the confidence over Sir Keir Starmer and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper. Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Sir Olly Robbins has become the latest Westminster figure to lose their role to the Mandelson scandal after it had emerged the disgraced peer was denied clearance in [...]
Bank of London hit with £2m fine for ‘misleading’ watchdog Fintech The Bank of London has been slapped with a hefty fine from the banking watchdog after “misleading” the regulator and “failing to act with integrity”. The embattled fintech and its parent company Oplyse Holdings are on the hook for £2m after the watchdog found it failed to be open regarding its capital position. It marks [...]
Pagefield owner PPHC ramps up political consultancy with WPI acquisition March 23, 2026 AIM-listed consultancy firm PPHC has ramped up its politics offering after acquiring government relations business WPI Strategy. Founded in 2014, WPI turns over around £2.5m per year and counts the likes of London City Airport, Microsoft, Pension Insurance Corporation, and Vodafone Three among its clients. The company, which counts a number of former Labour advisers [...]
Hiding MP staffer names is a bizarre decision post-Mandelson scandal March 13, 2026 Plans to remove the names of MP staffers from the official register will only make Westminster more opaque, writes Alastair McCapra.
‘Cover up’: Starmer blames vetting amid process questions on Mandelson March 12, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman has blamed the vetting process inherited from previous governments for Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment despite accusations that the Prime Minister did not follow ministerial procedures and oversaw a “cover up”. Starmer’s spokesman said the government was looking to reform the due diligence process and national security vetting procedure for major appointments. [...]
Mandelson files pose huge questions for Starmer March 12, 2026 What was Keir Starmer thinking? That’s not a rhetorical question; I really do want to know (because I cannot imagine) what the Prime Minister was thinking when he signed off the decision to send Peter Mandelson to Washington. It was the first week of February when, during an excruciating performance in the Commons, Starmer admitted [...]
Mandelson wanted a near £550,000 payout – and got £75,000 March 11, 2026 Peter Mandelson demanded a £547,201 payout for the remainder of his time as UK ambassador to the US after being sacked, with a settlement of £75,000 being agreed with the Foreign Office, official documents have shown. In the first tranche of documents to be released by the government relating to Mandelson’s time as ambassador, it [...]
‘It’s a feeding frenzy’: US consultancy scoops up dozens of senior Global Counsel staff March 10, 2026 A little-known American advisory firm is poised to hire up to a quarter of Global Counsel’s senior leadership team, amid a “feeding frenzy” that has broken out for top staff left jobless by the ignominious collapse of the Peter Mandelson-founded lobbying group. Washington-headquartered Capstone expects to confirm as many as 20 senior hires in the [...]
Voters say Starmer should resign over Mandelson affair March 4, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer should resign over his handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal as his apology failed to deal with allegations of sleaze within the Labour Party, the majority of voters believe. The latest City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll of UK voters has found that over half of Brits (59 per cent) believe Starmer should have [...]