Speeches by Whittingdale.

“So the Foreign Office is not going to give any information as to whether payment was made to him.”

“He is not?”

“Is he receiving any kind of settlement or pay-off?”

“I have two further questions. Sir Olly, you have made it clear that Lord Mandelson was withdrawn from his position; he did not resign. Is he still on the civil service payroll?”

“They were game-changing, but you did not give any indication to the Prime Minister of their existence.”

“You must have realised that the contents of those emails were explosive—that they completely changed the perception.”

“It was not allegations; it was copies of emails.”

“This goes back to what the Chair was saying earlier. The Prime Minister is under fire essentially because the Foreign Office did not properly inform him.”

“Sir Chris, do you have anything to add?”

“What about your Department? Your Department briefs No. 10 prior to Prime Minister’s questions.”

“But you had not told the Prime Minister, at that stage, that there were all these emails in which Lord Mandelson was expressing his continuing support and friendship for Jeffrey Epstein.”

“But they then said that new information became available after the Prime Minister had expressed his confidence.”

“So you are saying that to protect Lord Mandelson, you gave no indication to No. 10 before Prime Minister’s questions that you had come across information that might cause serious doubt about the appropriateness of his position.”

“But it must have been apparent to you before the Prime Minister got up at 12 pm on Wednesday that this was pretty explosive. Did somebody not say to No. 10, “Hold on. Before you express your complete confidence in Lord Mandelson, there is something here you might like to be aware of”?”

“Bloomberg obtained the emails, I think on the Tuesday evening, and the Foreign Office then analysed them, but they did not tell the Prime Minister until after he had appeared in the House of Commons the following day to express his confidence in Lord Mandelson.”

“The Minister will be aware that Türkiye was removed from the F-35 programme following its acquisition of the S-400 Russian air defence system amid concerns that it could compromise the F-35 technology. Can he say whether Türkiye has agreed to return the S-400, and if not, is he confident that our technology will not be…”

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) on obtaining this important debate. A number of powerful points have already been made, but I want to put on record the concerns that have been expressed to me by constituents who have children at, or who work at, the Anglo European School in Ingatesto…”

“On that, you were quite recently labelled as essentially an arm of British intelligence services by Russia. I know you do not operate in Russia now, but have you detected any further pressure on British Council offices in areas where Russia is quite strong?”

“Can I ask you specifically about the Baltic nations, where there is an enormous effort taking place on the part of Russia, particularly in terms of propaganda? You have already chosen to say that you will close two of the three offices in Estonia and Lithuania. In Lithuania, for instance, 3% of the population are now U…”

“When do you expect to be in a position to tell them?”