Jon Sopel

Four comms directors, two chiefs of staff, two cabinet secretaries and one top civil servant.

Is it still everyone else's fault?

Welcome to The News Agents.

Yeah, first out of the traps, almost before the real debate, the real prime minister's questions had started, came a Conservative MP who stood up and went to the heart of really the big question that hung over Ollie Robbins' testimony yesterday.

He asked about, drumroll, Matthew Doyle.

OK.

It's a really uncomfortable listen, really uncomfortable watch that, because what Pat McFadden and indeed what Keir Starmer fall back on is the fact that he wasn't given the job.

Exactly.

And...

That is a ridiculous excuse.

The fact that what they asked for didn't quite come off.

As it happens, Matthew Doyle went into the House of Lords.

So, you know, presumably there will be a certain amount of discomfort, has been a certain amount of discomfort around that whole appointment too.

But the fact that Pat McFadden, who is really one of the old timers of Labour, one of the closest loyalists to Keir Starmer, not one of those whose names appears to be in the ring anymore,

you know, as a putative leader in any shape or form, the fact that he can't even find his way to saying whether he approached Keir Starmer to ask that or whether he left it.

All he's doing is just avoiding it.

Well, the reason you choose ignorance, obviously, is because you don't want to

And as we found out last night, never even knew this conversation was going on around him.

And Kemi Badenoch decides that she is going to press the matter home.

She raises the question, not just of Matthew Doyle and the putative ambassadorial role, but in how it looks from a woman to a guy looking in on that cosy little club.