Sir Olly Robbins has only been giving evidence to the foreign affairs committee for 20 minutes, and already he has made clear that he is not going to allow Keir Starmer to shape the narrative around Peter Mandelson’s vetting. The former permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office told MPs within minutes of starting his session that when he started the job, ‘I walked into a situation in which there was already a very, very strong expectation’ that Mandelson needed to be in America ‘as soon as possible’. He accused the government of a ‘generally dismissive attitude to his vetting clearance: the focus was on getting Mandelson out to Washington as quickly as possible.’

He described an ‘atmosphere’ of pressure and phone calls asking when the vetting would be completed, and suggested to the committee that they should take more evidence on whether it really was clear that Mandelson’s appointment was subject to vetting.

Robbins has, so far, been calm and polite, but is dropping bombs in the way that civil servants like to do: in the same tone of voice as they might talk about something totally boring. This is anything but totally boring, and already has serious implications for Keir Starmer.

More to follow…