Speeches by Morello.

“Did that conversation happen at a point at which he had read the report? There is a difference between receiving the report and reading it, I guess.”

“I guess I am going back to what you said earlier, which is that the Prime Minister talks to lots of people before coming to the decision himself, but so far, everyone who you have listed seems to be on the fence as to whether or not Peter Mandelson was a good appointment or worth the risk. How do you get to the point w…”

“I want to quickly go back to your presentation of the conversation with Matthew Doyle: that if there were upcoming ambassadorial posts in the Foreign Office, he should consider applying for them. Can you see how, if you were Matthew Doyle and had just seen the Prime Minister ram Peter Mandelson down the throat of the F…”

“He received the full report. Did you discuss the contents of the report with him?”

“And did you discuss those responses with him?”

“What is true?”

“So that was unique. Given that you never had cause to see the traffic-light system, should we read anything into the fact that Sir Olly, when he had that meeting, was not shown it?”

“Do you want me to narrow it down?”

“That is not what Sir Olly Robbins told us. Sir Olly Robbins told us that Matthew Doyle’s name was another one floated as a political appointee. Given that when the Prime Minister politically appointed Mandelson it was a lock, it would be fair to assume, if you are Matthew Doyle, that effectively a similar guarantee was…”

“Apologies if we are going over the same point here, but for the point of clarity, the due diligence report is produced by the Cabinet Office. You received that. Did the Prime Minister receive the full unredacted due diligence report, or did you summarise it, or did you brief him orally? What did the Prime Minister rece…”

“Did he raise any reservations with you during that discussion?”

“You wrote some clarification emails to Peter Mandelson and received those replies. Did those responses go to the Prime Minister?”

“Okay. Did he express any reservations at that point about the appointment of Peter Mandelson?”

“You have talked about there being pros and cons to the appointment of Peter Mandelson. When you spoke to Jonathan Powell, you said that he raised pros and cons. When you spoke to David Lammy, he raised pros and cons. Outside of Peter Mandelson himself, is there anyone who was not raising any cons? Were there any out-an…”

“Okay. I mentioned already you served under four Prime Ministers. A search through the records, and you can correct me on this, suggests that the only other political appointment that happened during your tenure as permanent secretary was Sir George Hollingbery, the former Member of Parliament for Meon Valley, who was a…”

“It does, thank you. More broadly in terms of the process, you have already mentioned that you have never seen the now infamous traffic-light boxes. Apparently, according to the letter we received last night, the departmental head of security had also never seen the traffic-light boxes and was not aware of them. Sir Oll…”

“Do you have a view on the accuracy of the statement?”

“I think this follows on from what Alex was asking you, Sir Philip. You are requesting to see the due diligence report; you are flagging to the Foreign Secretary that you have concerns. In his evidence, Sir Olly told us that this was the only time in which the security department requested to see him on whether to grant…”

“No, you wouldn’t have because he would have been sitting there thinking, “Well, if I want the job I am definitely going to get it because the Prime Minister got Peter Mandelson one.””

“I want to return to the original questions at the opening. You talked about the timeline and that, in meetings with Simon Case prior to coming into Government, the Prime Minister was already minded to make a political appointment. According to what you have said, at that point no names were being discussed, but why was…”