Housing and Communities
Referral of Prime Minister to Committee of Privileges
“We have another Minister coming to the Dispatch Box to say something quite different. Simon Case, the then Cabinet Secretary, set out what the full due process was. A note from the Cabinet Secretary a year after the appointment—after Peter Mandelson had been sacked and after I had asked questions at the Dispatch Box—is not an exoneration. It is part of the cover-up. We have been told by Sir Olly Robbins, the former permanent secretary of the Foreign Office, that the Government showed a “dismissive attitude” to vetting and even argued that Peter Mandelson did not need any vetting—that is not due process. We have been told that No. 10 put “constant pressure” on the Foreign Office to approve the application—that is not due process. Sir Philip Barton, the former permanent secretary of the Foreign Office, said this morning that he was “presented with a decision… There was no space for dialogue”. He also confirmed that the normal order is vetting and then announcement, but in this case the announcement was before the vetting—that is not due process.”
