Olly Robbins has just revealed that Downing Street tried to find an ambassadorial job for Starmer’s then-Comms chief Matthew Doyle. And instructed Robbins not to tell David Lammy, who happened to be the Foreign Secretary…
“There were several discussions initiated by Number 10 with me about potentially finding a head of mission opportunity for Matthew Doyle, who was then the Number 10 Head of Communications, and I was under strict instruction not to discuss that with the then-Foreign Secretary which was uncomfortable. But the context here […] I was still in my early months in the job, but I’d already concluded […] that the Foreign Office needed quite serious reform… I found it very hard to think how I would explain to the office what the credentials were of Matthew Doyle to be in an important head of mission role…”
Robbins stressed repeatedly the point that he was “uncomfortable” finding a job for Doyle given his lack of credentials. Of course it would later emerge that Doyle campaigned for convicted sex offender Sean Morton, which Number 10 seemed sanguine about…
Douglas Alexander – a friend of Starmer’s – was asked on Sky News if the PM will be in post at the next election. He wasn’t so sure himself:
“I think he will. There are no certainties but of course I think he will lead and I think he should because, frankly, on the biggest call in this parliament he’s exercised the right judgment, which is to keep us out of someone else’s war.”