Pippa Crerar

That's unclear, but we know what his ambitions are as well.

The reality is that he can't trigger any contest himself because, as you say, he's not an MP himself.

And even if he has identified a seat, and we've been obviously going around all of them and trying to find out which one it might be in the Northwest, there's no guarantee that he would get selected, even if the opinion on Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, which blocked him last time, is softening.

There's no guarantee that he would win a seat that he then was selected for, given reform success across the Northwest in the elections.

And there's no guarantee that Labour MPs would come in behind him should he make it back to Westminster.

I think it is really important, as you say, Lucy, to note that should Wes Streeting decide to go for it and decide to go for the leadership, that if Andy Burnham isn't in a position to run, that the soft left will coalesce around at least one other leading figure.

And whether that's Ed Miliband, whether that's Angela Rayner, whether that's somebody like Louise Haig, who runs the Tribune Group and so far has been fairly supportive, whether

of Andy Burnham, whether that is somebody like Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Party.

I mean, all those options are on the table.

This is The Guardian.

You didn't need deep vetting to tell you that he was going to be a risky appointment.

And we knew that he'd been sacked from previous Labour cabinets twice.

At its heart, it comes down to that original sin, the prime minister's judgment or lack of judgment in appointing Peter Mandelson.

The fact that he could be this Trump whisperer, that quite clearly was the wrong decision, a catastrophically wrong decision.

As you say, Lucy, it's very unusual to have so much focus on a hearing.

But ultimately, it's because this has become a key moment in answering the question that so many MPs and so many members of the public, including those on your train this morning, have, which is how on earth

Did Peter Mandelson end up as our ambassador to Washington despite having failed his security vetting?

And how on earth did the prime minister not know about it?

And ultimately, that gets to the heart of why there's been this huge interest in his appearance before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee this morning.

Yeah, and I think it's worth flagging that Ollie Robbins came into this job in the Foreign Office after the Prime Minister had announced that Peter Mandelson was going to be his man in Washington, after they'd gone through the official bit of the process, which is going to the King.