Sir Olly Robbins has submitted a legal challenge over his dismissal as the top civil servant at the Foreign Office, the FDA union has announced.
Sir Olly is seeking a judicial review of the decision to sack him in April this over the controversy surrounding Lord Peter Mandelson's appointment as British ambassador to the US.
The FDA Union, representing Sir Olly, said Sir Keir Starmer should “admit that sacking Olly was a mistake, based on a grievous misunderstanding of how the National Security Vetting (NSV) system worked and a rash response to a media story”.
Sir Olly said in a statement issued by the union: “I bring this action reluctantly. It would have been unnecessary if the Prime Minister had simply apologised for his mistake and made amends for the distress and cost it has caused me and my family.
“Instead, I now have to ask the courts to determine that the Prime Minister’s decisions were unlawful, unreasonable and to quash them.”
Sir Olly, 51, served as permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office from 2025 until he was fired.
Previously he defended his actions surrounding Lord Mandelson’s appointment, stating he was working in an "atmosphere of pressure" and that there was a “very strong expectation” that the former minister should be “in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible”.
He told the MPs that the reason there were concerns around Lord Mandelson during the vetting process were not linked to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Keir said he was “absolutely furious” at the former civil servant over his handling of the vetting process and described the failure to inform No10 about the concerns surrounding Lord Mandelson as “staggering”.
But there is understood to be strong support within Whitehall for Sir Olly.
Senior civil servants are believed to have privately said he was in effect fired for doing what Downing Street wanted by quickly passing Lord Mandelson through the vetting process despite concerns.
Andy Burnham’s team are rumoured to be considering Sir Olly for a role under his administration.
The former Manchester Mayor is on course to become Prime Minister next week after no other MPs challenged him for the Labour leadership.
Sir Olly is a former deputy national security adviser and the Britain’s ex-Brexit negotiator and is said to be being considered for the national security adviser job, held by Tony Blair’s ex-chief of staff Jonathan Powell.
