James Cook

We're going to continue with what you might call the long tail of the Peter Mandelson story.

And with Catherine's help, we're going to focus on the tension between the civil service and the government.

I thought the way Adam put it yesterday was brilliant, saying that the full stop was at the start of the sentence.

And now the sentence just keeps going on and there's no end to it.

And that is what it feels like.

So today there's two things that happen that we're going to get through, first of all.

Prime Minister's question time first, Chris.

And this question, so let's just kick off by hearing this.

This question that Sir Keir Starmer faced right at the start almost of PMQs from the Conservative MP, Mike Wood.

Yes, so Matthew Doyle was the Prime Minister's Director of Communications.

He's had quite a few in the last couple of years, but he was one of them in the early months of the Labour government.

He had floated around in Labour circles on and off.

for many years before that.

He worked for Tony Blair back in the day, both in government and then also once Tony Blair was no longer in government, he worked for David Miliband at the International Rescue Committee.

And yeah, he left Downing Street and in the months prior to him leaving, there was, as we heard yesterday from Sir Ollie Robbins, conversations that Downing Street had with him about

the then head of the civil service within the Foreign Office, around whether or not there was a, basically, were there any jobs going in the diplomatic service to become an ambassador?

But don't tell the Foreign Secretary.

But don't tell the Foreign Secretary.

And I know this sounds, because it is a very kind of inside baseball, Westminster-y, Beltway, SW1, London-y kind of story.

about people who are not, you know, public figures to any great degree and what jobs they may or may not be being hawked for.