Former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill has called for Robbins to be reinstated at the Foreign Office after his evidence to MPs
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, is one of the ministers sent out by No 10 to defend Keir Starmer on the airwaves in situations that are particularly difficult, and today he was on the morning interview circuit.
In an interview with Sky News, McFadden did not accept that the mood among Labour MPs was mutinous. Asked if he had a message for colleagues who do want to see Starmer replaced, he replied:
My message to them is the prime minister has acknowledged this appointment was a mistake, whatever the rationale was for it. And to be a prime minister is to be a decision-making machine. And they won’t all be right.
But that doesn’t mean you ditch the leader. It doesn’t mean you change prime minister. I think we’ve had too much of that in the UK in recent years.
Robbins did his job, aware of the pressure from across Downing Street but not buckling to it. And yet misunderstanding about what that job required led the prime minister to rush to a wrong judgment. I cannot believe that, had he waited until after the foreign affairs select committee session, the PM would have sacked Robbins.
The world is an uncertain place. The Foreign Office and its professional head are dealing with simultaneous crises in Ukraine, the Middle East and the transatlantic relationship. Britain cannot afford a gap at the top, nor can it afford to lose the services of a first-class civil servant whose diligence and thoughtfulness were on full display yesterday in Portcullis House. There is one immediate conclusion in my view: the government should reinstate Robbins as permanent undersecretary.
