Importantly that neutralises the accusation of lying, or deliberately misleading the Commons.
The remaining criticism is that Starmer and No10 put too much pressure on FCDO to appoint Mandelson no matter what.
Robbins does at least corroborate PM's claim that no minister was told of the vetting issue with Mandelson. He confirms he did not share it with them.
Emily Thornberry doesn't seem convinced that if Robbins was under so much pressure, he didn't:
a) look at the contents of the vetting doc
b) tell someone he'd cleared Mandelson despite there having been red flags. "I don't think I felt under any obligation to tell anybody".
Robbins says the issues with Mandelson's vetting were described to him, but he didn't actually see the UKSV document itself.
He says that is normal process, aside from in exceptional cases. Asked whether surely this was an exceptional case, he says "No".
Robbins says UKSV does not "fail a candidate" and nor does FCDO "overrule" a vetting decision.
FCDO had to assess the risk within UKSV's findings.
Robbins says he was told Mandelson was a "borderline" case and the risks that needed to be managed.
"Throughout January my office was under constant pressure"...from No10, Robbins says. "There was an atmosphere of constant chasing" over Mandelson's appointment.
"Never any interest in whether, only an interest in when" Mandelson would be appointed.
By the time Robbins started as permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, Mandelson had already been appointed and announced, he points out, "without caveats".
"He'd already been given access to the building and low classification IT and higher classification briefing".
🔥NEW: Sir Olly Robbins says there was an expectation from No10 to get Mandelson in post "as quickly as humanly possible".
There was a "dismissive attitude to his vetting process", Robbins says.
Ed Davey says “it is 2022 all over again”, in another reference to partygate. V uncomfortable for Starmer - who presented himself as a new broom back then - to be compared to Johnson.
“The only decent thing to do is take responsibility” he says and resign.
Badenoch quotes Starmer back to himself when he said in Jan 2022 that if Boris Johnson misled the house over partygate, following revelations that month by ITV News, he should resign. Does he hold himself to that standard now?
Badenoch quotes Starmer back to himself when he said in Jan 2022 that if Boris Johnson misled the house over partygate, following revelations that month by ITV News, he should resign. Does he hold himself to that standard now?
Badenoch says she has six questions for the PM, which she has taken the unprecedented step of providing to Starmer in advance. She is going all out to pin him to answering the unknowns.
Kemi Badenoch says Starmer has breached the ministerial code by taking this long to come clean about Mandelson's vetting, after learning of it on Tuesday.
She says the first opportunity to do so was Wednesday at PMQs, but he didn't.
Starmer quotes a letter from the then Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald from Sept 16th saying “due process had been followed”.
When asked last week, Wormald says the Foreign Office didn’t even tell him that Mandelson had failed vetting.
"What I do not accept is that the appointing minister cannot be told" of the vetting outcome, PM says.
"There is no law that prevents civil servants from flagging the outcome".
Mandelson's vetting "could and should have been shared with me" and he wouldn't have appointed him.
PM confirms that vetting of Mandelson didn't begin until three days AFTER his appointment as Washington ambassador was announced.
Starmer says this was normal at the time but he changed the procedure after sacking Mandelson so that appointments can't take place until after vetting is completed.
Decision to override vetting was not told "to me, the Foreign Secretary, any other minister, or even the cabinet secretary...I found this extraordinary", Starmer says.
"This is information I should have had a long time ago...that I and the House had a right to know.."
NEW: The Prime Minister repeats, "At the heart of this, there was a judgement I made that was wrong... I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson."
He insists on Tuesday he found out "for the first time" that he had been granted clearance against vetting recommendation.
This explains the long hiatus between the bill passing IoM’s parliament last year and being granted (or not) royal assent.
Understand work is already underway to add amendments that can be voted on in the coming weeks, after bill originally passed with relative ease.
The UK Government says it is unable to recommend the Isle of Man’s Assisted Dying Bill for Royal Assent.
Pretty unusual step by David Lammy, but MoJ says the bill needs to include further details to meet European Convention on Human Rights.
www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of...
NEW: Olly Robbins has been called to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday 👀
All frames Monday’s statement to Commons by the PM as a crucial moment. Labour MPs so far seem relatively willing to believe him. Now he needs to convince the public that the fault lay with Robbins, not him.
Those loyal to Starmer tell me tonight they don’t believe he’d ever waive through a failed vetting. Robbins might have assumed the will behind Mandelson’s appointment was strong enough to overlook it, but people who know Starmer insist he’d have cancelled the posting if he knew.
What were the signals Olly Robbins was receiving from higher up that led him to make the bold call to waive Mandelson’s vetting?
Had it been made clear that No10 wanted Mandelson, chequered past and all?
Even if PM didn’t know about the failed vetting, had he created the reckless motivation?
EXCL: Justice Secretary David Lammy says a digital ID will be introduced to the justice system by the next election, following the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu.
We were given exclusive access to the paper system, stacked with potential for errors.
www.itv.com/news/2026-04...
However, current legislation does not allow a person to be charged for not reporting someone to the police.
One of the inquiry's recommendations today is that the Law Commission should review whether there SHOULD be a legal duty to inform.
EXCL: ITV News understands that following today's Southport Inquiry, Merseyside Police are continuing to review whether or not to reinvestigate Axel Rudakubana's parents.
The report is damning of his parents' failure to fully cooperate with agencies over his behaviour.
BREAKING: Southport Inquiry utterly damning of the failure of both policy and parenting in relation to the attacker.
Almost nobody in his life - police, council, mental health services, Prevent, nor his father and mother - did enough to stop him.
www.itv.com/news/granada...
That’s me done for Easter. Left Kate in the bin. See you in ten days or so 👋 🐣
Back with you tomorrow and Wednesday on GMB 6-10am before little Easter break 🐣