Speeches by Whittingdale.

“Did you express a view as to whether or not developed vetting should take place before an announcement?”

“One would assume, given the sensitivity of the material on this phone—maybe all sorts of things besides Peter Mandelson—that there would be quite a robust effort to recover it. Has there been any news as to whether it has been found?”

“Can I ask about the two notes that went to the Prime Minister from the private office about the appointment? In each case—they have been released under the Humble Address process—they are completely blank, other than the submission. There is no comment. The Prime Minister has not indicated any view. I have worked in Do…”

“You say the Prime Minister had been made aware of the risks, but he had not, because the developed vetting had not been carried out, so all that had taken place was the due diligence. Did you ask whether or not developed vetting had taken place?”

“Well, that is the alternative: that he did not indicate in writing, but said, “I would like to have a meeting to discuss this.” But if such a meeting took place, there would be a record of it, and no record has been released.”

“So how did you discover that the Prime Minister had decided to go ahead with Peter Mandelson?”

“You will be aware that a number of very senior former civil servants have spoken about how damaging this episode has been for the civil service. As a former very experienced permanent secretary and head of the diplomatic service, what is your assessment of how this has affected the civil service, and in particular the …”

“A meeting took place, which led to the private secretary writing to say that that was the decision. Is there a record of that meeting?”

“On Belgrave Road.”

“Do you think the trusting relationship, at present, has broken down?”

“And you missed the operator saying “Stepney Park”.”

“So until 15 December you had no information that any discussion had taken place, and certainly that a decision had been reached.”

“Not DV.”

“On 15 December.”

“One of the reasons the squad car didn’t come round was maybe because you gave the wrong location. You said you were in Belgrave Street, which the operator interpreted to be in Stepney. You said, “he turned left. There’s a park on top of the road” and the operator said, “Stepney Green Park, ok” and you said, “Yeah. He t…”

“Can we take it that your phone would have contained quite a lot of communications, either with Peter Mandelson or about Peter Mandelson’s appointment?”

“I will follow up on one or two of the questions from the Chair. You said that the process had been under way for an internal competition but come the general election it was frozen. Once the new Government had been elected, was the process not then recommenced?”

“You have set out why you think he was well qualified to do the job, but you have also known him for a very long time. You would have also been fully aware of the fact that he had twice had to resign from the Cabinet; that he had business interests with China; that he had a close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein; and tha…”

“The Foreign Office must have been continuing to look at potential candidates to replace Karen Pierce.”

“Can I just be clear? The Prime Minister had decided that he wished to make a political appointment. Was it you who first said, “Prime Minister, I have the perfect candidate: Peter Mandelson”?”