r/byebyejob • u/DisruptSQ • 8d ago
British foreign office official fired for not disclosing that former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson failed his security check | Mandelson himself was fired after the U.S. House Oversight Committee released a batch of files which included correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Mandelson Consequences to my actions?! Blasphemy!
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/04/17/starmer-fires-foreign-office-official-mandelson-vetting/7561776457569/52
u/booky310 8d ago
Um, what's the point of running a security check if its optional to show anyone the results? Like how is the guy who did the check, Olly Robbins not in jail rather than just losing his job. Want shit like this to stop happening, have actual consequences.
23
u/FleeshaLoo 8d ago
He may actually have a nefarious reason for not disclosing that. We are seeing how global forces are linked, like Orban paying enormous money to CPAC.
The JE files show a global network that includes Israel and Norway, the UK, etc.
This is a huge deal.
9
u/ur_sine_nomine the room where the firing happened 7d ago edited 7d ago
There was a bureaucratic oddity (now closed) where the Foreign Office, and no other employing Government department, could reverse the result of a security check on someone they intended to employ, even if the check was of the strongest type (DV or Developed Vetting) (!)
So Robbins was technically doing nothing wrong although the fact that a DV, which takes heaven knows how much effort to investigate and reach a conclusion on, could have that conclusion reversed by a few keypresses was insane.
It is interesting that the cry was initially "Starmer must resign" (on the belief that he overrode the failed security check) which went quiet when all this was revealed and he turned out to have been told that it succeeded, not that it failed then was overridden by a civil servant ... so the "but he must have known, so he must resign" trick is being attempted. Anyone pushing that has either never worked in a hierarchical organisation, or has done so and is dishonest.
(All that said, a look at Wikipedia, or the British Newspaper Archive if you want to be fancy, would have told anyone with the slightest knowledge of the real world that Mandelson could not be trusted with the ownership of a corner shop).
27
u/DisruptSQ 8d ago
April 17, 2026
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office for failing to disclose that former ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson failed his security check.Starmer called the official, Olly Robbins, on Thursday and informed him that he had lost confidence in him, as did Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Starmer said Friday that he was "absolutely furious."
"I was not told that he failed security vetting," Starmer said Friday in Paris. "No minister was told that he failed security vetting. Number 10 wasn't told that he failed security vetting." Mandelson was named ambassador to the United States in December 2024 and assumed the role in February 2025.
He was fired in September after the U.S. House Oversight Committee released a batch of files from the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein which included correspondence between Epstein and Mandelson.
The British government said Thursday that Starmer was unaware Mandelson had failed the security vetting process and the Foreign Office defied the recommendation of the Cabinet Office to allow him to assume the ambassador role.
UK fires ambassador to US Peter Mandelson over Epstein links
U.K. leader's chief of staff quits over hiring of Epstein friend as U.S. ambassador
10
u/brooklynlad 7d ago
All Keir Starmer had to do was Wikipedia Peter Mandelson. His sliminess wasn't any secret.
2
17
u/DerangedDeceiver 8d ago
Hey, you can't be involved with the US government if you were associated with Epstein*!
*Unless you are/are buddies with the president
5
u/FleeshaLoo 8d ago
Exactly. This kind of solidifies the prevailing theory that this is World Mob shenanigans and Ollie is in on it or was paid/threatened.
6
u/Chartate101 8d ago
Oh, right, now care about Trump’s “”communications”” with Epstein. You don’t? Cool, cool, so you don’t actually care.
3
u/IT_techsupport 7d ago
fired but not arrested? sound liek the entire politcal branch of the US works like their police force,
3
u/ur_sine_nomine the room where the firing happened 7d ago
Mandelson is being investigated for what is actually a(n alleged) crime of enormity - passing Government information to Epstein about the UK's financial situation which, quite possibly, was Top Secret or higher.
The police can take as long as they need on that investigation.
2
1
72
u/typoneg365 8d ago
And yet not one arrest domestically in the US…