Speeches by Morello.

“When you briefed the Prime Minister on the limited amount of information you were able to share with the UKSV—I don’t know if you briefed or provided, so please clarify, the risk mitigations that were outlined in the email—did you also provide information to the Prime Minister in any form about what the advice of the h…”

“Subsequent to your receiving access to the UKSV report, did you have a conversation with Ian Collard, who was the head of security at the time, to establish what advice or information had been shared with Sir Oliver?”

“And had he seen the email of the mitigations that were being put in place?”

“I just want to clarify: you obviously had a conversation with Sir Oliver about accessing the information, but prior to that had there been a conversation with Sir Olly about the advice that he received, and did his answers to your questions around that match the evidence that he gave to the Committee on Tuesday?”

“Subsequent to you gaining access to the UKSV, was there a conversation with Sir Olly about the advice that he received and the decision that he made?”

“Apologies for requesting a clarification—so many people have been fired that it is sometimes difficult to keep up. Peter Mandelson was fired because the release of the Epstein files showed that his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein had continued for a lot longer than he had disclosed, prior to being appointed. Sir Olly…”

“So in terms of the Prime Minister’s decision to fire Sir Oliver, he was not in receipt at that point of all of the information—only the limited information that you provided relating to the UKSV.”

“Understood.”

“I just want to clarify the timelines. You said that you read the report on Tuesday. You also said that there was an audit trail that included an email from the security department to the chief operating officer of the FCDO which outlined the mitigations that their security department was recommending. When did you see …”

“And what is your professional judgment on whether or not the mitigations that the FCDO security department was recommending were adequate to manage the risk that you read in the UKSV report?”

“Before making the decision to sack Olly Robbins, had the Prime Minister also seen the mitigations that would have been put in place? Was it his judgment on whether or not those mitigations were appropriate?”

“But he had already fired Sir Oliver, without all of the additional information pertaining to the mitigations and the advice of Foreign Office security officials.”

“But the Prime Minister had been briefed by you on the UKSV.”

“Can you tell us if he is a good civil servant?”

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

“A lot of my constituents say that there is effectively a two-tier system: if someone is able to use the digital system, it is extremely fast; if someone has a medical condition, they have to use the paper form, which creates all sorts of administrative problems that we end up chasing up. My caseworkers say that the DVL…”

“Sorry—I probably should have formed the question better in my head before I put my hand up.”

“I would not ask you to opine on this anyway, but let us put aside for a moment whether or not Sir Olly Robbins was the decision maker, although ultimately accountable for the decision to grant security access to Peter Mandelson, and whether or not that was the right decision. Given your understanding of the FCDO’s proc…”

“I am just trying to work out the timeline in terms of what information the Prime Minister had when he made the decision to fire Sir Oliver, and what information was provided to the Prime Minister subsequent to that. I am especially thinking about the email with the mitigations in it or the advice of the security offici…”

“Will the right hon. Member give way?”