Speeches by Morello.

“I want to return to the original questions at the opening. You talked about the timeline and that, in meetings with Simon Case prior to coming into Government, the Prime Minister was already minded to make a political appointment. According to what you have said, at that point no names were being discussed, but why was…”

“Well, we should put on record that you have served under four different Prime Ministers. At any point during your tenure as perm sec, were you asked by a No. 10 organisation to withhold information from the Foreign Secretary? How usual is that request?”

“Sir Philip, you said that you were informed by the principal private secretary in No. 10 on the 15th.”

“I thank the hon. Member for securing this debate. May I thank Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service for its response to the fire at Newell House in Sherborne the other night? I am in awe of the bravery of its firefighters, who were on the scene within eight minutes. The hon. Member talks about the particular iss…”

“Okay. Did he express any reservations at that point about the appointment of Peter Mandelson?”

“It does, thank you. More broadly in terms of the process, you have already mentioned that you have never seen the now infamous traffic-light boxes. Apparently, according to the letter we received last night, the departmental head of security had also never seen the traffic-light boxes and was not aware of them. Sir Oll…”

“Did he raise any reservations with you during that discussion?”

“You have talked about there being pros and cons to the appointment of Peter Mandelson. When you spoke to Jonathan Powell, you said that he raised pros and cons. When you spoke to David Lammy, he raised pros and cons. Outside of Peter Mandelson himself, is there anyone who was not raising any cons? Were there any out-an…”

“What is true?”

“And did you discuss those responses with him?”

“The 18th.”

“So that was unique. Given that you never had cause to see the traffic-light system, should we read anything into the fact that Sir Olly, when he had that meeting, was not shown it?”

“I guess I am going back to what you said earlier, which is that the Prime Minister talks to lots of people before coming to the decision himself, but so far, everyone who you have listed seems to be on the fence as to whether or not Peter Mandelson was a good appointment or worth the risk. How do you get to the point w…”

“Apologies if we are going over the same point here, but for the point of clarity, the due diligence report is produced by the Cabinet Office. You received that. Did the Prime Minister receive the full unredacted due diligence report, or did you summarise it, or did you brief him orally? What did the Prime Minister rece…”

“He received the full report. Did you discuss the contents of the report with him?”

“That is not what Sir Olly Robbins told us. Sir Olly Robbins told us that Matthew Doyle’s name was another one floated as a political appointee. Given that when the Prime Minister politically appointed Mandelson it was a lock, it would be fair to assume, if you are Matthew Doyle, that effectively a similar guarantee was…”

“That is fine. I am just wondering why, prior to the election, the Prime Minister was already saying, “That job there is going to be a political appointment.””

“No, you wouldn’t have because he would have been sitting there thinking, “Well, if I want the job I am definitely going to get it because the Prime Minister got Peter Mandelson one.””

“So you were informed on the 15th that the Prime Minister wanted to appoint Peter Mandelson?”

“You can tell us if he stepped outside of the ideal process.”