Morgan McSweeney

We've got to get him out to Washington in time for inauguration.

And it's got to be Mandelson.

You know what, John?

I agree with that, although.

Which is, I think, that really sticks in the craw of British public opinion.

And I was contacted, funnily enough, over the weekend by Luke Trill, who'd been doing focus groups and saying this is, you know, what we'd said on the podcast at the end of last week was exactly what was being said to him in focus groups, which is...

You just sacrificed a decent bloke, Ollie Robbins, to save your own bloody skin.

And that was... Somehow, I think that is so ugly.

When Ollie Robbins was trying to do his best in frigging difficult circumstances, when there was pressure from Number 10 just to get this done and to have Mandelson appointed.

And we heard in the committee today there was no plan B if Mandelson had not been approved.

And so you think...

Keir Starmer's willingness to sacrifice somebody else so that they can take the rap for his decision making and his flawed judgment, I think is what people think.

Well, in a moment, we will be putting all this to Tom Baldwin, biographer of Sir Keir Starmer and friend too.

We're firing if it's not nailing it.

It was more serious than that, in the sense that

The advice had been from the then cabinet secondary that developed vetting should be taken, should happen before any announcement.

Kiyosama chose to ignore that as the prime minister.

He went ahead, announced it, told the king, got, you know, agreement from the United States that this would happen before there had been vetting.

There was a process where Ollie Robbins is.

And then Ollie Robbins gets hung out to dry.