Luke Tryl

Thinking about it like a panto helped.

Hello, it's Adam in the Newscast studio.

And it is Chris at home.

So Chris, last time we were recording an episode of Newscast, it was on Thursday evening.

This story had emerged in The Guardian about Peter Mandelson's security vetting apparently being overruled by the Foreign Office.

I went home and ended my day.

Your day was just beginning.

It was really.

Yeah, it was.

So we just did a whole thing.

I may have mentioned at the last episode, we just did a whole thing where we'd, you know, we'd spoken to all of the opposition parties and they'd all reacted to the fact that Downing Street wasn't saying anything and blah, blah, blah.

And then at five to six, they did say something.

And so then we spoke to them all again and started afresh.

And then no sooner had I done the 10 o'clock news and I was heading home and

Then it turns out that Sir Ollie Robbins, he of the Foreign Office and the most senior job, or at least he was this time yesterday, is no longer because he is out on his ear courtesy of this whole this whole row.

So another another casualty of this whole Peter Mandelson saga.

And so this was Ollie Robbins, Sir Oliver Robbins, who to long-time listeners of Brexitcast will remember him as Theresa May's main Brexit man.

And then he went into the private sector for a bit and then was brought back to sort of transform the Foreign Office as his most senior civil servant.

When you talk to people in and around Number 10, what tale do they tell about why he had to go?

Well, they say that they were kind of gobsmacked and furious that they didn't find out about what he knew.