Foreign Office was asked to find role for senior Starmer aide, says Olly Robbins

Ex-civil servant testifying about Peter Mandelson says there was a ‘creep’ of senior diplomatic roles going to political figures

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Downing Street asked the Foreign Office to find a senior diplomatic role for Keir Starmer’s then communications chief, Matthew Doyle, the department’s former lead civil servant revealed on Tuesday.

Testifying to MPs at parliament’s foreign affairs select committee, Olly Robbins said he had had several conversations with No 10 about finding a role for Doyle, who was later suspended as a Labour peer after it emerged he had campaigned for a friend charged with possessing indecent images of children.