Speeches by Morello.

“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, 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?”

“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.””

“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…”

“The 18th.”

“Sir Philip, you said that you were informed by the principal private secretary in No. 10 on the 15th.”

“So you were informed on the 15th that the Prime Minister wanted to appoint Peter Mandelson?”

“Twenty-eight-year-old Benedict Solly was killed on the A37, near Cerne Abbas, at a notorious accident hotspot. Local residents had been calling for interventions to make that junction safe, but part of the problem is that the decision on whether to make an intervention at the junction is based on historical data, which…”

“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…”

“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.””

“And did you discuss those responses with him?”

“I just want to clarify: you obviously had a conversation with Sir Oliver about accessing the information, but prior to that had there been a conversation with Sir Olly about the advice that he received, and did his answers to your questions around that match the evidence that he gave to the Committee on Tuesday?”

“Subsequent to you gaining access to the UKSV, was there a conversation with Sir Olly about the advice that he received and the decision that he made?”

“Did the information that was provided by Ian Collard differ from the evidence that Sir Oliver gave to the Committee on Tuesday?”

“When you briefed the Prime Minister on the limited amount of information you were able to share with the UKSV—I don’t know if you briefed or provided, so please clarify, the risk mitigations that were outlined in the email—did you also provide information to the Prime Minister in any form about what the advice of the h…”

“I just want to clarify the timelines. You said that you read the report on Tuesday. You also said that there was an audit trail that included an email from the security department to the chief operating officer of the FCDO which outlined the mitigations that their security department was recommending. When did you see …”

“Subsequent to your receiving access to the UKSV report, did you have a conversation with Ian Collard, who was the head of security at the time, to establish what advice or information had been shared with Sir Oliver?”

“Apologies for requesting a clarification—so many people have been fired that it is sometimes difficult to keep up. Peter Mandelson was fired because the release of the Epstein files showed that his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein had continued for a lot longer than he had disclosed, prior to being appointed. Sir Olly…”

“Sorry—I probably should have formed the question better in my head before I put my hand up.”

“I would not ask you to opine on this anyway, but let us put aside for a moment whether or not Sir Olly Robbins was the decision maker, although ultimately accountable for the decision to grant security access to Peter Mandelson, and whether or not that was the right decision. Given your understanding of the FCDO’s proc…”