Speeches by Morello.

“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…”

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

“To the Chair’s point about this looking like it was a railroaded decision, prior to the election, you already have the PM identifying that position as one he wants to make a political appointment to. You then have two candidates—again, not to speak to the suitability of either of them, but one is a friend of Jeffrey Ep…”

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

“That is fine. I am just wondering why, prior to the election, the Prime Minister was already saying, “That job there is going to be a political appointment.””

“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…”

“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?”

“Much of this seems to hinge on how much the Prime Minister knew when he was making a decision to appoint Peter Mandelson—and the briefing that he may or may not have got.”

“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 appreciate that. You said that you were not involved in the decision-making process around Peter Mandelson because it was a political appointment. Was the Foreign Secretary involved in the decision making?”

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

“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…”

“What is true?”

“In any conversations with No. 10 were you ever asked to withhold information from the Foreign Secretary?”

“Well, we should put on record that you have served under four different Prime Ministers. At any point during your tenure as perm sec, were you asked by a No. 10 organisation to withhold information from the Foreign Secretary? How usual is that request?”

“I suppose we should ask if that operates the other way. A lot of this seems to come down to what the Prime Minister was told and when. How frequently are people being asked to withhold information from the Prime Minister? Has that happened as well?”

“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…”

“Well obviously, in his evidence, Sir Olly Robbins said that he was asked or that another name was floated to him, Matthew Doyle. Not only that, but he was asked to keep that information from the Foreign Secretary. If not during the conversation on the 15th, at any subsequent point, were any other names floated to you f…”

“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…”