Jennifer Rastall

🚨 BREAKING: Kemi Badenoch has suspended the Tory leader on Worcestershire Council after entering a coalition with the Greens to overthrow Reform UK control It led to a Green councillor becoming leader of the council

Pleased that Sir Philip Barton has agreed to attend the Committee on Tuesday. He will give evidence at 9am. Morgan McSweeney will also give evidence on Tuesday - time tbc.

Following Sir Olly's evidence, the Foreign Affairs Committee has today requested that Cat Little, Ian Collard, Sir Philip Barton and Morgan McSweeney attend and give evidence. Cat Little will give evidence tomorrow at 9am. Morgan McSweeney will attend Tuesday.

Linguistic prescription is authoritarian. It’s one of the things trans activists have used, with enormous success. Seeking to control what people are allowed to say is a hallmark of cults and totalitarian regimes. I do not subscribe to the post modern ideas that changing language changes reality, that redefining something alters its nature, that our conception of a thing is of more importance than observable facts about the thing itself. To me, this kind of thinking is a dead end full of people pontificating and obfuscating, enjoying the sounds of their own voices while the world burns outside. Some gender critical people seem to think that demanding we all use correct sex pronouns will return the world to sanity. This is an attempt to make the tail wag the dog. You cannot fight linguistic prescription with more linguistic prescription, and no rights campaign can succeed if its adherents are more interested in creating a purity spiral than allowing the smallest space for nuance or for the complexities of human nature and feelings.

What do I think really happened with Mandelson and vetting? In October, November and December 2024, No10 indicated it wanted to appoint Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to Washington. It was presented with an array of people telling them not to: Cabinet ministers, spooks, officials in a vetting report. All raised major red flags. Starmer and McSweeny made clear they weren’t interested in any objection, and this must go ahead at all costs. So Mandelson’s appointment was announced mid December 2024. The vetting we are focussed on today came later, in January 2025. Vetting of ambassadors is the responsibility of the FCDO and Olly Robbins. One bit of the system said no - the UKSV agency said don’t appoint Mandelson. We don’t know on what grounds, but probably the grounds No10 had seen and rejected as a reason to block. Olly Robbins cleared Mandelson. Very quietly, Mandelson didn’t get the very highest level of clearance when he got the job, but he got the overall OK because of Robbins. Robbins did No10 a favour. This is because Olly Robbbins knew that going to No10 post announcement, and saying the Mandelson appointment can’t happen, was politically impossible. And civil servants want to deliver for their political masters. So Olly fixed it for Keir: and is now paying a price. Olly Robbins has - incidentally - done No10 a second massive political favour. The really really toxic claim doing the rounds last night was that surely someone - anyone - in No10 DID know the UKSV agency turned down the vetting Olly Robbins is making clear he didn’t tell people the UKSV verdict because that would be inappropriate as part of the process he followed. It’s not even clear he saw it. No10 don’t seem to realise he’s done them a favour, and are releasing documents to challenge alternative versions of events. Let’s see how it plays out. The bottom line is No10 wanted Mandelson come what may. They rammed it through. One quango; post appointment announcement, was never realistically going to be allowed to stop Mandelson taking the job because the top of Government had publicly committed to it. They hadn’t wanted to heed the warnings earlier; and were in too deep That’s where I think we are

I don't normally publish conversations with Downing Street but this was my initial exchange with Downing Street's then director of communications over Mandelson failing vetting on 11 September last year.