Enda Brady

And they're saying that Starmer didn't know that he had failed the vetting process.

And they're saying that, you know, as soon as the prime minister was informed, he immediately instructed officials to start establishing facts about this whole vetting process.

But of course, ultimately, the prime minister pushed on and gave him the job.

It massively undermines number 10 and it is another knife wound in Keir Starmer.

So Ollie Robbins, one of the top officials at the Foreign Office until Starmer sacked him last week, he gave more than two hours of testimony to this Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

He was very precise with his words and he said that number 10 took a dismissive attitude to the vetting.

He said that Mandelson was given access to the Foreign Office building and higher classification briefings even before he was granted security clearance.

And he said that the whole number 10 apparatus had created this atmosphere of pressure, which made it almost impossible to deny clearance for Mandelson.

And of course, he'd already been announced for the job in the first place.

So, Ollie Robbins putting the knife in, he feels he's done nothing wrong, and he feels not only has Starmer thrown him under the bus, he's reversed over him a couple of times as well.

It's bad.

It's very bad.

I mean, they look at you.

They look at your character.

They sit down with you.

There's a verbal interview, a questionnaire.

They look at your financial history.

They're looking at every aspect of you as a person.

Can you be blackmailed?

Is there anything in your private life?