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Chapter 1: What recent actions has Keir Starmer taken regarding the civil service?
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Hello, it's James in for Adam today. And Chris, you know how we're doing election cast once a week at the moment, and we've brought back Remoter Voter. We have, we have. I think we had a trip to Japan a few days ago. Yeah, that's right. And we've got a couple that we thought you would enjoy. So cue the music.
MUSIC PLAYS
It's our usual undersighted self, James. Yes, that's right. And here are the remoter voters. Hi there. We live in Cardiff, Wales. Thank you. But me, my husband and son will be remoter voters voting via a postal vote on the 7th of May. We'll be at our daughter's graduation at the University of Miami. Oh, congratulations.
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Chapter 2: How does Catherine Haddon describe the relationship between the government and the civil service?
That sounds great. And it says here... Something in Welsh, Chris, that perhaps foolishly I will now attempt. Go for it. Which I think is hwyl fawr. And I'm very, very sorry if you're Welsh. And I think it means essentially farewell because I've looked it up. That's from Kate Madden. Athens, Sam, thank you so much. I'm sorry if I've butchered your lovely language.
And it says, PS, more importantly, I'm also having to work out a way of watching Eurovision whilst we're 4,300 miles away from the UK. Yes, priorities. Eurovision first, election second. And the other one, hello, Adam and Co. While the local elections are taking place, I shall be over 4,000 miles away, sleeping in a yurt by the shores of Lake Izikul in Kyrgyzstan.
I will miss the insightful analysis, the eclectic group of contributors and the wonderful humour. But I have to admit, I'm looking forward to some time off disconnected from the current news cycle. Good luck with all the election newscasts. Who knows what will have happened by the time I return. I love the idea, Mark, of a remoter voter and a newscaster in Kyrgyzstan.
Chapter 3: What implications does the sacking of Olly Robbins have for civil servants?
Fantastic. It's brilliant, Mark. It's in Huddersfield at present, so that'll be a bit of a change of scene. And astonishingly, Mike, our lovely engineer, who is in charge in the studio recording this, has been to Lake Izzikul in Kyrgyzstan and has slept in a yurt. What are the chances of that? What's it called? Lake Izzikul? Well, no, I ruined it that time. It's Lake Izzikul. Oh, I see.
It does sound a bit like Izzikul. I mean, anyway... Send in your remote voters. We want to hear them. Newscast at bbc.co.uk. You can WhatsApp us as well. 0330 123 9480. And we're recording this week's election cast tomorrow. This is Wednesday. We'll be recording on Thursday.
Chapter 4: What was discussed during Prime Minister's Questions regarding Matthew Doyle?
So there's plenty of time to get in touch. Anyway, for now, let's get on with this episode of Newscast. Newscast. Newscast.
Newscast from the BBC.
Humanity's next great voyage begins. We are in the midst of a rupture.
Nostalgia will not bring back the old order. Six seven. Yeah, it's supposed to be me as a doctor. Daddy has also a special connotation.
Ooh la la. Thinking about it like a panther helped.
Do we play music now or what do we do?
Hello, it's James in Glasgow. And it is Chris in Westminster. And we're joined by Catherine Haddon, friend of Newscast, who is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. Hello, Catherine. Hello. Right.
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Chapter 5: How has the civil service's trust been affected by recent scandals?
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.
Can the Prime Minister deny that Downing Street considered appointing Matthew Doyle to a diplomatic position? Prime Minister. Mr Speaker, Matthew Doyle worked for many years in public service, for me as Prime Minister and other Ministers. When people leave roles in any organisation, there are often conversations about other roles they want to apply for, but nothing came of this.
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?
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Chapter 6: What insights does Faisal provide about the rising inflation rate?
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.
But I must admit, my jaw did drop when I heard that line from Sir Ollie in front of the select committee. Now, I've spoken to Matthew Doyle, Lord Doyle as he now is, after... Sirolli's revelations yesterday, and he was saying it was news to him that this was going on. But there we had pretty much confirmation. It wasn't denied yesterday, so there was no suggestion that it wasn't true yesterday.
And Sirolli had been the recipient of these calls, so he was a primary source in this revelation. But the Prime Minister... tacitly acknowledging there that this had gone on, that Downing Street had indeed sought to see if there might be any vacancies.
We heard yesterday from Sir Ollie that it was his view that this was, I mean, he put it quite diplomatically, quite a surprise to him and quite uncomfortable, particularly not being able to share this information or this inquiry with anyone. the then Foreign Secretary, David Lammy. And in the end, nothing came of it.
And, you know, outwardly, Lord Doyle wasn't sort of wildly qualified, to put it gently, for this kind of job. I think his interest was more in staying in some role in domestic politics anyway.
And he ended up going into the House of Lords and then being thrown out or suspended, I should say, from the Parliamentary Labour Party because it emerged that he'd campaigned for a friend in a council election who'd been charged with child sexual images offences, and that friend was later convicted.
And then another twist, an email that we received just after that from the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which says, I'll read some of it, the Foreign Affairs Committee will continue its scrutiny of Lord Mandelson's security vetting with two evidence sessions, hearing from Morgan McSweeney and Kat Cooley.
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Chapter 7: What factors are contributing to the current economic climate in the UK?
And it goes on to say that the committee will hear evidence from Cat Little, who's a very senior civil servant. And we talk about her exact role in a minute tomorrow at 9.30am. That's Thursday. And that next week on Tuesday, the former Downing Street chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, will appear in front.
So a couple of this yet again, the sentence continues and continues and continues despite the full stop, which Adam's point was, you know, the government saying we're sorry we messed this up despite that full stop being at the start. Yeah, you know, there are umpteen, perhaps infinite, it seems at the moment, chapters in the Lord Mandelson fiasco saga. Attach what description you want.
We've obviously had this concentrated blast of it over the last seven days in a row now at Westminster because the Guardian's scoop around all of this broke at around three o'clock on Thursday afternoon of last week. And here we are recording it live. It's almost seven o'clock on Wednesday evening and it's been making news every day for seven days straight.
And yes, as you say, it's going to make news again in its own way with Cat Little, who is the chief civil servant in the Cabinet Office when she appears in front of the House. Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
She's had something of a walk-on role, if you like, in the news of the last couple of days because she featured in a story that The Guardian also had in this context around who else knew prior to the Prime Minister. that the recommendation of the vetting, the vetters, was that there should be effectively a red box tick for Peter Mandelson's vetting.
Well, Cat Little, alongside Antonio Romeo, the Cabinet Secretary, was... aware, but certainly those in government in Downing Street have been keen to point out that in their view, the outlook of those two civil servants was very different from that of the now former lead civil servants in the Foreign Office, because they went through a process seeking to inform
their, if you like, political masters, rather than, as Downing Street would see it, the opposite from Sir Ollie Robbins.
So Cat Little, who was in the Cabinet Office, in the thick of the whole process of the churn through of loads of documents in government before they go, before Parliament's now published via, in some instances, the Intelligence and Security Committee to work out what can see the light of day without breaching...
uh sort of international security concerns so cat little will be quite something on thursday and then yeah morgan mcsweeney will be quite something too next week and catherine what do you think of this cat little appearance what do you think we might learn i mean am i wrong and i'm you know literally 400 miles from london at the moment i was a lot further than that earlier today because i was in aberdeen at one point today but from this sort of removed position i
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Chapter 8: How do recent events impact the future of the civil service and government relations?
And is that what we're going to see play out a bit more when Cat Little appears?
Well, there's a battle between Number 10 and the sort of Ollie Robbins Foreign Office. Obviously, it's now a bit divided because Robbins is no longer there. You know, there is an interim permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office. So it's not really the current Foreign Office who's sort of pushing what was happening during Ollie Robbins' time. It's Ollie Robbins on his own.
But yes, it is, shall I say, a little bit unusual that they are putting the civil service defending the Prime Minister's position on this sort of scandal at the forefront. So I was a little bit surprised to hear that Cat Little is appearing sort of tomorrow so urgently. It's worth saying the government has a degree of control about which officials appear when in front of select committees.
I mean, you know, Keir Starmer has obviously since the Humble Address wanted to be transparent or appear to be transparent about this process, releasing documents and so forth, obviously coming in front of the Commons, delivering statements when new information comes to light and so forth.
But normally governments are quite reluctant or at least careful about when civil servants will come and appear. And it is very unusual to put civil servants in the sort of firing line in front of a quite political scandal. So I can only sort of assume that, you know, they want Cat Little appearing because there's some things that they want to come out that they think are best delivered by her.
So I would expect some kind of revelation. And the same is true about Morgan McSweeney. You know, he's not in government anymore. But of course, they must have spoken to him. Some of the statements they've had out about new information coming to light, particularly about whether there was this pressure on.
on the Foreign Office suggests that somebody must have gone and talked to Morgan McSweeney and said, what's your take on this? What would you say if you were asked all these questions? So I don't think it's just Morgan McSweeney has decided, yes, I will appear and my diary is actually free next week. I'm very happy to come along.
This is number 10, happy for these individuals to come and appear before these select committees or this particular select committee, I should say.
Yeah, and just a reminder, and lots of newscasters will know this, when you mentioned the humble address there, that was this parliamentary mechanism by which the Conservatives forced out a lot of this information, to put it very, very simply. Now, look, more generally, Catherine, how would you assess the relationship between this government and the civil service?
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