PM fails to answer question over whether his office asked for Lord Doyle to be given ambassadorial job
Downing Street wanted to give Lord Doyle a top job (Image: PA)
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to deny that Downing Street tried to give another disgraced peer a top diplomatic job. Former Foreign Office chief Sir Olly Robbins said on Tuesday that No 10 wanted him to look at “available head of mission jobs” for Lord Doyle, a former Downing Street director of communications who was later suspended from the Labour Party over his links to a convicted paedophile.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asked whether the PM knew his office was lobbying for an ambassadorial role for Lord Doyle and whether they were doing it on his authority. Sir Keir told MPs: “Matthew Doyle worked for many years in public service for me as Prime Minister and other ministers.
“When people leave roles in any organisation, there are very often conversations about other roles they may want to apply for. In this case, nothing came of it.”
Sir Ed replied: “The House and the public watching will note the Prime Minister failed to answer my question.”
Sir Olly said that there had been “several discussions initiated by No 10” about finding a head of mission role for Lord Doyle. He said the talks took place in March 2025, before Lord Doyle’s suspension.
He told MPs: “I was under strict instruction not to discuss that with the then foreign secretary, which was uncomfortable.”
Sir Olly said: “It was serious enough for the No 10 private office to ring up the head of the diplomatic service and ask for a forward look of available head of mission jobs. And that’s the point of which I thought I needed to lay down some markers.
“The No 10 private office were clear that this was so sensitive because it was about the Prime Minister’s own dispositions for his own senior staff that I should keep that for myself for now.”
Dame Emily Thornberry asked Sir Olly whether he could remember making calls to the Foreign Office saying: “Can you get a job for X’s mates, but don’t tell the foreign secretary?”
The civil servant said it was so long ago he could not remember the terms of the phone call.
He added: “I don’t think it’s completely surprising that the Prime Minister would be so sensitive about the way in which he was dealing with a member of his senior team, and particularly his director of communications… that he would want that kept to a very, very tight circle at the time.”
Sir Olly said that the inquiries were made towards the beginning of his tenure as top civil servant at the Foreign Office, during a time of significant redundancies in the department.
He added: “I found it very hard to think how I would explain to the office what the credentials of Matthew were to be in an important head of mission role when I was in danger of making very senior, very experienced diplomats [redundant].”