Starmer's No. 10 sought ambassador role for ex comms chief

Alex Morales, Bloomberg News on Apr 21, 2026

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Keir Starmer’s office tried to secure an ambassadorial role for his former communications chief Matthew Doyle, former top civil servant Olly Robbins said in a revelation that’s likely to pile further tricky questions on the prime minister about political influence in the Foreign Office.

Robbins was speaking during an evidence session Tuesday morning centered on his decision to approve Peter Mandelson to the U.S. ambassadorship. After telling the panel that he’d faced political pressure to clear Mandelson, he was asked whether any other political appointees had been proposed by the government to roles normally taken by career diplomats.

“There was only ever one other serious proposal made, and I think that was in March 2025,” Robbins told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. “There were several discussions initiated by No. 10 with me about potentially finding a head of mission opportunity for Matthew Doyle, who was then the Prime Minister’s Director of Communications.”

Starmer’s office declined to comment on matters relating to “personnel” beyond noting that Doyle didn’t go on to take up a post in the diplomatic service.

The disclosure is likely to heap further pressure on Starmer, whose judgment has already been called into question for appointing Mandelson despite his having twice in the past resigned from government in controversial circumstances and his known links with the late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. The premier fired Mandelson in September following revelations by Bloomberg that those ties ran deeper and lasted longer than previously known.

Doyle, now a Labour member of the House of Lords, quit his No. 10 role in late March 2025, close to the time Robbins said No. 10 was making inquiries. Starmer has already faced questions about appointing Doyle to Parliament’s upper chamber, despite him also appearing to have ties with a convicted pedophile.

The Sunday Times reported in recent months that Doyle had campaigned for a man charged with child sex offenses, revelations that led Starmer to boot him out of the Parliamentary Labour Party, telling the House of Commons he “did not give a full account of his actions.” Doyle in February apologized for his past association with the man.

Ultimately, a role wasn’t found for Doyle in the Foreign Office, something Robbins said was “as likely, I suspect, to be about Doyle’s own preferences and circumstances as anything I said.”

“I can only tell you what I said, which is that I thought this would be difficult for the Foreign Office,” Robbins said. “It was difficult for me, personally, obviously, as a leader, to explain why very talented and experienced diplomats were having to leave the organization, and people who would be widely considered to have rather fewer credentials were being put in these important jobs.”

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—With assistance from Alex Wickham.