Anti-corruption champion defends No10 over job plea for Starmer aide

Keir Starmer's anti-corruption champion last night defended secret attempts by No10 to land the PM's former spin chief a plum diplomatic posting. Baroness Hodge said there was 'nothing wrong' with people helping their friends find work, amid claims that Downing Street pressured the Foreign Office to find a job for Matthew Doyle. Sacked mandarin Sir Olly Robbins, a former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, told MPs yesterday that No 10 had initiated 'several discussions' with him about the prospect of making Lord Doyle an ambassador. He said he 'felt quite uncomfortable' about the suggestion, and added that he was asked to keep it from then-foreign secretary David Lammy , and had warned it would be 'hard for me personally to defend'.