It is hard not to grin. Our lawyerly soon-to-be-former Prime Minister, Mr Process, stands accused of, er, failing to follow the proper process.

Olly Robbins was chief mandarin at the Foreign Office until he was unceremoniously thrown under the bus by Starmer in a panicked attempt to find a scapegoat for his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson to the country’s most senior ambassadorial role. Robbins has now applied to the High Court for a judicial review of Starmer’s decision to dismiss him.

The sight of Sir Keir being hoisted by his own petard in his final week in office when he wants to be left alone to focus on booking his tickets to the World Cup final and unscrewing the lightbulbs from the Downing Street flat, is undeniably rather funny. It is also a reminder that as Prime Minister his sanctimony was matched only by his ineptitude. Clearly he can’t even fire someone correctly. Having led an administration that sought to strengthen workers’  rights against dismissal, there is also a very Two Tier Keir way about his attempt to ignore the most basic tenets of employment law and dismiss the erstwhile Foreign Office chief without due process.

Robbins pointed out in his statement that the legal action ‘would have been unnecessary if the Prime Minister had simply apologised for his mistake and made amends for the distress and cost it has caused me and my family’. It is a shame that Starmer could not stomach that humble pie, so saving taxpayers from footing the legal costs the government will inevitably now rack up. If the government loses and Starmer was inclined to rescue a little of his reputation he might consider paying the damages out of his own pocket. Though for a man that does not even buy his own suits, it would be imprudent to hold out much hope.

It is hard not to feel that Robbins was treated pretty shoddily by Starmer. As he said in bringing the court action, not only does there appear to have been ‘no process at all’ to his dismissal, the reasons he was given for being let go seem ‘irrational’.  If Robbins was contractually barred from briefing ministers on the details of Mandelson’s security vetting process then blaming him for not sharing something he had a duty not to disclose does indeed seem unfair. It also pays to remember that Starmer has form in finding the nearest available neck to cover for his failings. Insofar that Stamer had a governing strategy it appears to have been offering up periodic sacrificial lambs in the hope of some sort of deus ex machina to save his premiership. Just ask Sue Gray, Morgan McSweeney, Matthew Doyle, Tim Allan or Chris Wormald…

But we must not let Starmer’s botched firing of Robbins cause us to lose sight of a more important principle: ministers must be allowed to both hire and, yes, fire their officials.

It is here that the judicial review which Robbins is bringing, which will also look at the wider question of whether the prime minister can sack senior civil servants at will, is a risk. The FDA civil service union, which is representing Robbins, said: ‘It damages the core values of a professional and impartial civil service if its most senior officials can be dismissed on a prime ministerial whim.’

I would argue it is essential that senior officials can be dismissed by the prime minister and indeed by any secretary of state. Not for speaking truth to power or on a mere whim – but for failing to meet clearly defined objectives? Absolutely.

Under our current system, ministers face huge difficulties holding officials to account. We have allowed a culture to develop where accountability extends only to the elected, with officials – however senior – shielded from any blame when things go wrong.

In this instance, Robbins seems to have discharged his duties proficiently, and been made a fall guy unfairly. But there is a danger that the next permanent secretary that is dismissed reasonably after failing to deliver or to otherwise maintain the confidence of their ministerial boss now looks to Robbins’s example, or indeed to Philip Rutnam, the former permanent secretary at the Home Office who successfully claimed constructive dismissal after accusing Priti Patel of bullying.

We should not let this judicial review push the aspiration for a Whitehall where ministers can hire and fire based on performance – as is the right of any private sector CEO – yet further from reach. Starmer deserves to get it with both barrels from Robbins. But permanently curtailing the prime minister’s right to dismiss top officials would be the wrong answer. The country should not have to suffer further from one prime minister’s ignoble attempt to save his own skin.