The Readout

Robbins’ Mandelson Drama Puts Spotlight Back on Starmer

The PM is still under pressure after ex-civil servant survives a parliamentary grilling
Peter Mandelson, right, in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and JD Vance last May.Photographer: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg
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“I’m not here to attack the Prime Minister,” said Olly Robbins as he firmly laid most of the blame for the Mandelson-scandal at the door of Number 10 Downing Street. The line stood out during the former civil servant’s hours-long testimony to parliament this morning, and brought to mind “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” — and like Shakespeare’s Marc Antony, going on to do the opposite.

If you’re blissfully unfamiliar with the crisis (Starmer’s crisis, that is, not the Roman senate’s), here’s a quick recap going back nearly two years.