Richard Foord MP told “The Telegraph” he would “raise” a request to ask Sir Philip Barton to give evidence to the foreign affairs committee.

Sir Philip was permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, but mysteriously left two weeks after Lord Mandelson was appointed.

Next up to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee will be Cat Little – the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary at 9.30 today, Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, will give evidence next Tuesday, April 28.

Olly Robbins’ predecessor to be asked if he was forced out over Mandelson

Nick Gutteridge www.telegraph.co.uk

Sir Philip Barton was permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, but mysteriously left two weeks after peer was appointed

Sir Olly Robbins’s predecessor is set to be called before MPs amid speculation that he was forced out of his job over the Lord Mandelson scandal.

Sir Philip Barton, a former Foreign Office chief, is expected to be asked whether he was pressured to leave his post because he opposed the peer’s appointment as ambassador to the US.

He will be invited to give evidence to the foreign affairs committee about the events in the immediate aftermath of the decision to hire Lord Mandelson.

Sir Philip was the permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office – the department’s most senior civil servant – at the time the peer was appointed.

He ended his term early under mysterious circumstances in January last year, a fortnight after Lord Mandelson was confirmed as the incoming ambassador to the US.

That meant the former mandarin oversaw the first part of the hiring process, including the start of the vetting, before Sir Olly succeeded him in the post.

Richard Foord, a Liberal Democrat MP on the foreign affairs committee, told The Telegraph he would “raise” a request to ask Sir Philip to give evidence.

“I think it would be worth us inviting Sir Philip to appear again in relation to the appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US,” he told The Telegraph.

It is understood that parliamentary clerks are already looking at possible dates on which Sir Philip could be invited to appear.

Another member of the committee said they would want to ask Sir Philip whether his opposition to the appointment had caused his early departure.

“We were told Philip Barton pushed very hard that the appointment should not be made until after the vetting process had been completed, and was essentially overruled,” they said. “We’d want to hear from him what happened.”

The Mandelson files papers, released to Parliament last month, revealed that Sir Philip had told No 10 he had “reservations” about appointing Lord Mandelson.

On Tuesday, Sir Olly told the foreign affairs committee that his predecessor had clashed with the Cabinet Office over whether the peer needed to be vetted.

Downing Street was said to view the security checks as unnecessary, but Sir Philip “had to be very firm in person” that they were non-negotiable, he said.

Sir Olly also told the MPs that his predecessor had been “nervous” about hiring a non-diplomat such as Lord Mandelson for the role.

“It is possible he was worried about exactly the same reputational risks that were detailed for the Prime Minister at the time that he made the appointment,” he said.

His remarks have raised questions over whether Sir Philip was effectively forced out of his job because he opposed the decision to hire the peer.

Rumours began to circulate in the summer of 2024 that Lord Mandelson was being lined up if Donald Trump won the US presidential election that November.

News that Sir Philip was set to stand down as Foreign Office chief then broke on Nov 4, the day before Mr Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris.

Sir Keir was presented with a due diligence report on Lord Mandelson, who was by then the “lead candidate” for the role, on Dec 11. The Prime Minister formally took the decision to appoint him on Dec 18, with the appointment announced two days later.

Lord Mandelson’s vetting began on Dec 23, and Sir Philip formally left his post just over two weeks later, on Jan 8, when Sir Olly took up the reins.

Asked why Sir Philip had left his post early, Sir Olly told MPs that he did not know, but suggested that ministers may have felt it was “time for a change”.

The Telegraph has been told that other witnesses are being lined up to be invited to appear before the committee, presenting a further danger for Sir Keir.

They include Morgan McSweeney, No 10’s former chief of staff, who pushed hard for Lord Mandelson’s appointment, and Lord Case, the former cabinet secretary whose advice that the peer be vetted before he was hired was ignored by the Prime Minister.

Dame Emily Thornberry, the committee’s chairman, said: “If we invite people to give evidence to the FAC, we will ask them directly and not tell the media first.”

It was separately announced that Cat Little, the top civil servant at the Cabinet Office, is set to give evidence to the committee on Thursday.

Ms Little was one of two officials, alongside Antonia Romeo, the Cabinet Secretary, to be alerted in early March that Lord Mandelson had failed his vetting.

The pair did not disclose the information to Sir Keir for a fortnight, because they were first seeking legal advice on whether they could tell him.