Emily Thornberry

Yeah, it was a, I mean, I think it was part of a pattern of behaviour.

I think that the previous permanent undersecretary, Philip Barton, who left in early January, had been, well, what sounded like bullied, basically, you know, and then the new permanent undersecretary was talking about having

know daily interaction with number 10 um phone calls and and various things and it was quite clear from number 10 that they wanted peter mandelson appointed and it was up to the foreign office and the foreign office should just get on with it basically is what morgan mcsweeney is is alleged to have said and the behavior or the way in which you know you look at the evidence that you that we actually see in front of us we see it being announced

We see that with the announcement there's nothing about vetting or the importance of vetting.

We then see an email or a letter to Mandelson not talking about, of course, this is subject to vetting.

We hear about the bullying.

We then see that the King's permission was granted.

They got in touch with the Americans.

Everything was lined up.

And so all that was needed was for the Foreign Office to get on with it and to agree the vetting.

I do.

Yeah, I think that I think they were all, you know, that I mean, I think there was, you know, that was kind of what Ollie, I mean, Ollie Robbins didn't want to say, I made the decision I did because I was bullied.

He didn't want to say that he wanted to say that he had acted independently and hadn't been put under undue pressure.

Well, had been put under undue pressure, but it hadn't made any difference to him.

I don't believe it could not have made a difference.

I think that in the end, what's in the

the DNA of civil servants is they are there to ensure that the will of politicians is put into practice.

And that's kind of what, you know, that's what they do.

Now, it has to be done in a proper way.

And that's the question.