Former head of Foreign Office Olly Robbins applied for judicial review after Keir Starmer dismissed him in April

Olly Robbins, the former head of the Foreign Office sacked by Keir Starmer over his role in vetting Peter Mandelson, has received a six-figure payout from the government over his dismissal.

Robbins had applied to the high court for a judicial review of the prime minister’s decision to remove him as the top civil servant at the Foreign Office after he was dismissed in April.

The prime minister is correct to judge the time is right to push for closer links with the EU. The political risk is far outweighed by the potential rewards

The German philosopher GWF Hegel famously evoked the owl of Minerva when discussing the historical wisdom that comes through hindsight. This autumn, she has flown tirelessly over the landscape of British politics. Party conference season was dominated by conflicting Labour and Conservative accounts of the 1970s and 80s. And a decade after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Andy Burnham this week abandoned all equivocation over the damage – economic but also strategic – that resulted from that decision.

Having declared that it is time to “face up to the reality that Brexit has done more harm than good”, Mr Burnham told the House of Commons on Monday that it would be a “dereliction of duty” not to explore all options for closer relations with Brussels. Though he confirmed that in this parliament he will honour the red lines in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour manifesto, all bets will subsequently be off.

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