Ex-Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins believed in talks over top security role

Olly Robbins could be appointed national security adviser, it has been suggested. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA View image in fullscreen Olly Robbins could be appointed national security adviser, it has been suggested. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Ex-Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins believed to be in talks over top security role Civil service high-flyer caught up in Mandelson vetting row thought to be discussing comeback with Burnham’s team The Foreign Office chief who lost his job over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal is in discussions with Andy Burnham’s team about taking on a security-related role under the likely new prime minister, the Guardian understands. Olly Robbins has had “early exploratory talks” with senior advisers to the newly elected Makerfield MP over a post in his putative Downing Street operation, and insiders suggested he could be appointed national security adviser. It would mark a dramatic and controversial return by Robbins to the top of government less than three months after he was sacked by Keir Starmer following the Guardian’s disclosure that he had overturned a recommendation from UK Security Vetting to deny clearance for Mandelson. The disclosure is likely to ring alarm bells with senior Labour figures, including some of those currently in No 10, after he lost the confidence of Starmer and Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, over his handling of the vetting of Mandelson, who was sacked over the extent of his links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Questions remain about the defence Robbins mounted, both of himself and the system through which the national security establishment vets people, and the lack of mitigations put in place to get around the security concerns. The Guardian later revealed that Mandelson’s associations with senior figures in China, Russia and Israel were among the concerns raised by the UKSC when it concluded he should be denied clearance. The Foreign Office also refused to hand over a summary of Mandelson’s security vetting to the official tasked with compiling documents detailing the former Labour peer’s appointment as ambassador to the US, in response to a Commons motion forcing the release of documents linked to the process. However, there was strong support for Robbins within Whitehall, with senior civil servants said to believe he was in effect sacked for doing what No 10 wanted by swiftly passing Mandelson through vetting, arguing the focus should be on the prime minister’s initial decision instead. Robbins is understood to have been considering legal action against the government for damage to his reputation. Sources told the Guardian that Burnham’s team regarded him as an “outstanding operator”. Sources said the most likely position for Robbin in a new Burnham-led Downing Street operation would be that of national security adviser – a senior official in the Cabinet Office who serves as the principal adviser to the prime minister o