Starmer given warning ahead of another bruising day over Mandelson scandal

Sir Keir Starmer has been warned he has some "real bridge-building" to do with the civil service, as a former top official prepares to respond to the prime minister's stinging criticism over the Peter Mandelson scandal.

In an intense face-off with MPs in the Commons on Monday, which saw two members booted out for calling him a liar, Sir Keir reiterated he made the wrong call in appointing Lord Mandelson as US ambassador – but also repeated he would not have done so had he known the ex-Labour minister had failed the vetting process.

He has said he only found out last Tuesday that the Foreign Office had approved the appointment without telling him and has pinned the blame on Sir Olly Robbins, who was the department's most senior civil servant when the appointment was confirmed last year. He was sacked on Thursday.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for the PM to resign and accused him of throwing his staff and officials "under the bus" – and Sir Olly himself will have the chance to respond this morning.

He will face questions about the scandal from the Foreign Affairs Committee at 9am. The Times reports he will tell MPs the government pressured him into clearing Lord Mandelson despite his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

And it could get more awkward from there for the PM, with the Speaker having granted Ms Badenoch's request for an emergency Commons debate on the scandal too. That should start at around 12.30pm.

Other opposition party leaders have already joined her in calling for Sir Keir to resign.

'Fired for trying to help'

Ahead of what could be a bruising day for Sir Keir, former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman told Sky News's Electoral Dysfunction podcast the row has damaged his relationship with the civil service.

Speaking to political editor Beth Rigby, Baroness Harman said: "I think it's in the civil service that they're really distraught… [Sir Keir] said he wanted [civil servants] to be 'can do', to be backing the government to make the change the government wants to deliver.

"So that was the kind of culture he was trying to set: 'Help me do what I want to do.'

"I think a lot of the civil service think that's what Olly Robbins was trying to do. He was trying to help the prime minister do what he wanted to do, which was appoint Peter Mandelson, and now he's got fired for it!"

She added: "I think there's real bridge-building the prime minister has got to do with the civil service."

'War with the civil service'

It's not the first time Sir Keir has fallen out with the civil service. In December 2024, a few months into his premiership, Sir Keir gave a speech suggesting that "too many people in Whitehall" are being "comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline".

Baroness Harman said a good relationship with the civil service is vital to the success of the government.

"[Sir Keir] has got to get a good relationship with the civil service to have any hope of delivering on the government's objectives," she said. "And at the moment, the relationship is absolutely terrible."

"When the government is at war with the civil service, nobody wins," she warned.

(c) Sky News 2026: Starmer given warning ahead of another bruising day over Mandelson scandal