PM's ex-comms chief who supported sex offender was lined up for ambassador role
Sir Keir Starmer was facing a fresh Labour backlash after a senior ex-official said No 10 pushed the Foreign Office for his former media chief, who campaigned for a paedophile, to be given a top diplomatic posting abroad.
Sir Olly Robbins, the former mandarin at the heart of the Peter Mandelson vetting row, revealed on Tuesday that Downing Street asked him to find a “head of mission” job for Matthew Doyle, who was then No 10 director of communications.
It later emerged that Doyle had campaigned for Sean Morton, an ex-Labour councillor in Moray, Scotland, after the candidate was charged with possessing indecent images of children in December 2016.
The revelation from Robbins sparked anger in Labour, with an MP saying it highlighted a “jobs for the boys” culture in No 10 while Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper hit out at suggestions that her predecessor David Lammy should not be informed of the move to find a diplomatic post for Doyle.
The No 10 push in March 2025 for Doyle to get a diplomatic job came around two months after Morton was jailed in January 2025 for sexual offence convictions including possessing indecent photographs of children.
Idea was ‘seen off at the pass’
Morton had previously been convicted of another set of sex offences including possessing indecent images of children, and watching footage of the sexual abuse of animals.
Around the time Robbins was referring to, Doyle was understood by diplomats to be frustrated by the pressures of his day job as Starmer’s Director of Communications in No 10 and was casting around for a different role.
The chatter in London was that Doyle wanted a prestigious Foreign Office job in New York City.
Doyle denied he had any interest in a New York posting. Either way, the idea never made it near the US. “I think Olly [Robbins] saw it off at the pass pretty quickly before it got to a specific of where he might go,” a diplomatic source said.
Doyle said: “I have never sought any Head of Mission, Ambassador or any equivalent leadership-type posting. I was never aware of anyone speaking to the FCDO about such a role for me. My desire after leaving No10 was to stay in UK politics.”
The suggestion that there was a move to get Doyle a plum diplomatic posting nevertheless sparked anger in Labour ranks.
Labour MP Charlotte Nicholls told The i Paper: “Head of mission roles are incredibly important postings requiring suitably qualified candidates, and are not a consolation prize for staffers leaving No 10.
“It is bizarre that anyone thought this approach was at all appropriate, and it just speaks to a ‘jobs for the boys’ culture within the top of Government that is the original sin of the whole Mandelson saga.
“That Matthew Doyle was apparently responsible for determining that Mandelson’s links to Epstein were not a problem in his appointment as ambassador just makes the whole thing stink even more.”
Cooper said Doyle would not have been an “appropriate” choice for a head of mission role, adding in the Commons: “I am, of course, extremely concerned at any suggestion that the permanent secretary or permanent under-secretary of the Foreign Office would be told not to inform the Foreign Secretary
‘Dismissive’ approach to Peter Mandelson’s security vetting
Starmer was forced to strip Doyle of the Labour whip in February, just weeks after he took up a place as a Labour peer in the House of Lords, after being challenged over his former aide’s campaigning for Morton, as revealed by The i Paper.
No 10 said that the Prime Minister was unaware of the links between Doyle and Morton until they were revealed in media reports in December 2025, months after the push for the former comms chief to be given a diplomatic posting.
Robbins’ revelation came as he suggested to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that he was put under effective pressure by No 10 to approve Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US despite his known links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and other concerns.
The ex-official said there was a “dismissive approach” to Mandelson’s security vetting from No 10 and that there was a “very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible”, around the same time the push was being made for Doyle to get a posting.
Robbins told the committee: “I think in my tenure as permanent under secretary, there was only ever one other serious proposal made, and I think that was in March 2025.
“There were several discussions initiated by No 10 with me about potentially finding a head of mission opportunity for Matthew Doyle, who was then the Prime Minister’s director of communications.”
On Doyle’s mooted role, Robbins went on: “I was under strict instruction not to discuss that with the then foreign secretary, which was uncomfortable.”
Robbins ‘felt quite uncomfortable about it’
Edward Morello, a Liberal Democrat MP who pressed Starmer on whether he pushed for more political appointees to diplomatic roles on Monday, told The i Paper: “The Prime Minister has tried to portray the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador as a singular error of judgement.
“However we now know that he also tried to find Matthew Doyle an ambassadorship.
“To appoint one friend of a paedophile as ambassador might be an error of judgement, to try and appoint two looks like no judgement at all.”
Robbins said the suggestion came at a time when restructuring, including the potential of job losses, was being discussed at the Foreign Office (FCDO).
“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 leave the office,” he said.
Robbins said he “felt quite uncomfortable about it” and kept “giving advice that I thought this would be very hard for the office and was hard for me personally to defend”.
Doyle said: “have never sought any head of mission, ambassador or any equivalent leadership-type posting.
“I was never aware of anyone speaking to the FCDO about such a role for me.
“My desire after leaving No 10 was to stay in UK politics.”