The secret diary of a Foreign Office civil servant

Keir Starmer’s hellish week is only the prelude to a world of Mandelson chaos

Photo by Nikolay Mirchev/Millennium Images, UK

Thursday 16 April

Wheels down on tarmac. Jump into a trusty black cab outside the airport; dump suitcase in flat; plants dead; fridge empty. Classic. Thankfully, I lunch with a lobbyist. Bowl into the King Charles Street quad, home to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), post-lunch – it feels good to be back at the Death Star. Familiar sight of Larry sneaking through the gate across from No 10 and the buzz of desk officers smoking, catching the last of the sun. Arrive at my desk to find, not for the first time, a live mouse in the pair of heels I keep under there. The heating had decided to work for the first time since last June. No point calling facilities. The glamour never ends.

I do my stuff: clear bilat briefs, clutch cards, inward and outward visit bids (what a joy to work with high-performing juniors), then there are sudden, rapid pings to all phones as the Guardian piece drops – “Revealed: Mandelson failed vetting but Foreign Office overruled decision”. Yet more bad news for us and the Prime Minister. Uncomfortable looks flit around the office. I leave my phone at my desk and go to the high side for an intelligence briefing – while another issue at the Israeli embassy sharpens my mind. I feel a sudden pang of worry for those at post.

At a reception that night, sympathetic looks from other diplomats are replaced after one glass of warm white wine with rapid-fire questions. I’m suddenly holding my own involuntary press conference: “Will the PM last through this?”; “What are the latest predictions for locals?”; “Are people not fully cleared always shown sensitive info? As Five Eyes partners, we were not aware HMG does that”; “Shall we pause this conversation about defence contracts if we might be dealing with a new PM soon?” Political officers barely hide their transcribing of every answer I give, to be sent back to their capitals the second I depart. I hate it when we look weak. If only there was some clue it would all end this way – a clue like Peter Mandelson’s memoir The Third Man, which many of us dutifully read.

Friday 17 April

FCDO 2030: the huge redundancy – sorry, “transformation” – programme working its way through our ranks will come for us all in the end. That’s my tasteless thought as I look through the gates over to Downing Street. (I find it difficult to forget this is a Prime Minister who appointed a PR man, Tim Allan, who once worked for the Russian government.)

Musings from colleagues about how we’re not allowed to utter the word STRAP – a high-level security clearance – yet it’s being openly discussed by the entire lobby on X and the front pages of the papers. Watching on, our Five Eyes partners are rightly concerned by the scandal, as we would be if the tables were turned.

Incredible that the Foreign Secretary only found out that the department was subject to an investigation after said investigation was already under way. Glad to see political cross-departmental relations are as good as civil service ones.

Saturday 18 April

Arrive at a friend’s birthday to find Peter Mandelson’s security vetting is the talk of average Joes. I wonder if I should take another look over those day one and reshuffle briefs. Someone asks what my opinion is, and for the first time ever I’m sheepish to admit I work in the Foreign Office.

Monday 20 April

Maybe it’s best to be having this conversation about shoving through political appointees who could never possibly be cleared before we are all working for Reform. I feel caught. In the civil service, we’re either blamed for being obstructive or we’re damned for trying to make things work. I fear the worst is yet to come – we’ve not even got to releasing what Mandelson was doing (or not) while ambassador. No one is prouder to work in this democracy, or be held accountable by the fourth estate, than us. But sometimes it feels like lonely work in an era when international crises never seem to end. Few realise that the inner workings of the deep state are about to be published with the Mandelson files. Somehow I doubt the media will even explain to the public what a Dip-Tel is when they start to belittle our every move.

I join a call with our ambassadors and remind myself what a privilege it is to be surrounded by such dedicated, intelligent patriots, and how this might be the most important work I ever get to do. I must soak up this feeling before the axe falls.

This week’s Diary is by an anonymous FCDO official, and was written before the Prime Minister’s statement in the House of Commons on 20 April

[Further reading: Who’s afraid of Olly Robbins?]