{"id":336679,"date":"2026-04-21T21:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:00:13","slug":"downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/3LDFeI4w7FA\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3LDFeI4w7FA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>Sacked by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last week, today the former top Foreign Office civil servant Sir Olly Robbins has broken his silence.<\/p>\n<p>[Subscribe to our Substack newsletter: https:\/\/channel4news.substack.com\/subscribe]<\/p>\n<p>He told a committee of MPs that Downing Street had piled pressure on the Foreign Office to fast-track Peter Mandelson&#8217;s appointment as Ambassador to the US. <\/p>\n<p>He said he had followed all the rules when he agreed to his vetting clearance, even though security officials were &quot;leaning against&quot; recommending it and admitted he thought he had been made a scapegoat. <\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p>Get more news at our site &#8211; https:\/\/www.channel4.com\/news\/ <\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our Substack newsletter: https:\/\/channel4news.substack.com\/subscribe<\/p>\n<p>Follow us:<br \/>\nTikTok &#8211; https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@c4news<br \/>\nInstagram &#8211; https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/channel4news\/<br \/>\nTwitter &#8211; https:\/\/twitter.com\/Channel4News<br \/>\nFacebook &#8211; https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Channel4News\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sacked by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last week, today the former top Foreign Office civil servant Sir Olly Robbins has broken his silence. [Subscribe to our Substack newsletter: https:\/\/channel4news.substack.com\/subscribe] He told a committee of MPs that Downing Street had piled pressure on the Foreign Office to fast-track Peter Mandelson&#8217;s appointment as Ambassador to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128813],"tags":[129006,129005,136906],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-336679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-channel-4-news","tag-minister","tag-prime","tag-sacked"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief | News ISC Videos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Watch Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News ISC Videos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T20:00:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/3LDFeI4w7FA\/hqdefault.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b607dad6f0ffe6ee238615dd31287061\"},\"headline\":\"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-21T20:00:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":168,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hqdefault-2867.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"minister\",\"prime\",\"sacked\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Channel 4 News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/\",\"name\":\"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief | News ISC Videos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hqdefault-2867.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-21T20:00:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b607dad6f0ffe6ee238615dd31287061\"},\"description\":\"Watch Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hqdefault-2867.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hqdefault-2867.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":360},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/\",\"name\":\"News ISC Videos\",\"description\":\"Bringing Global News Videos To You\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b607dad6f0ffe6ee238615dd31287061\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cecb3968611acb579da5ca8d12661721d52793a03c59eda301c939b204a5bfea?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cecb3968611acb579da5ca8d12661721d52793a03c59eda301c939b204a5bfea?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cecb3968611acb579da5ca8d12661721d52793a03c59eda301c939b204a5bfea?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tidyhosts.com\\\/videos\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief | News ISC Videos","description":"Watch Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief | News ISC Videos","og_description":"Watch Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/","og_site_name":"News ISC Videos","article_published_time":"2026-04-21T20:00:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/3LDFeI4w7FA\/hqdefault.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/#\/schema\/person\/b607dad6f0ffe6ee238615dd31287061"},"headline":"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief","datePublished":"2026-04-21T20:00:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/"},"wordCount":168,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hqdefault-2867.jpg","keywords":["minister","prime","sacked"],"articleSection":["Channel 4 News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/","url":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/","name":"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief | News ISC Videos","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hqdefault-2867.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-21T20:00:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/#\/schema\/person\/b607dad6f0ffe6ee238615dd31287061"},"description":"Watch Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hqdefault-2867.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hqdefault-2867.jpg","width":480,"height":360},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/downing-street-pressured-me-to-approve-mandelson-hire-says-sacked-foreign-office-chief\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Downing Street pressured me to approve Mandelson hire, says sacked Foreign Office chief"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/","name":"News ISC Videos","description":"Bringing Global News Videos To You","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/#\/schema\/person\/b607dad6f0ffe6ee238615dd31287061","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cecb3968611acb579da5ca8d12661721d52793a03c59eda301c939b204a5bfea?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cecb3968611acb579da5ca8d12661721d52793a03c59eda301c939b204a5bfea?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cecb3968611acb579da5ca8d12661721d52793a03c59eda301c939b204a5bfea?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.tidyhosts.com\/videos"],"url":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336679"},{"taxonomy":"actors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actors?post=336679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}