00:00Prime Minister, Mr Speaker, Matthew Doyle worked for many years.
00:03What I set out to the House on Monday is that Foreign Office officials granted security clearance to Mandelson
00:08against the recommendation of UK security vetting.
00:12Yesterday, Sir Ollie Robbins was asked if he shared that decision with me, Number 10, or any other ministers.
00:20He gave a clear answer, no.
00:24Mr Speaker, that puts to bed all the allegations levelled at me by those opposite in relation to dishonesty.
00:31Mr Speaker, I cannot accuse the Prime Minister of deliberately misleading the House.
00:37But everyone can see what has happened here.
00:40This was not due process.
00:43Everyone knows the price of misleading the House.
00:46Will the Prime Minister finally take responsibility and go?
00:52Yes!
00:54Well, Mr Speaker, let's be absolutely clear.
00:57Before Mandelson took up his post, UKSB recommended with red flags that clearance should be denied
01:04and there was high concern that that was not brought to my attention or the attention of the Foreign Secretary
01:11at the time or subsequently is a very serious error of judgment.
01:17And anyone in my position would have lost confidence in the former Permanent Secretary.
01:21He keeps mentioning Sir Ollie Robbins.
01:24Sir Ollie Robbins told us that the Prime Minister even sought clearance from His Majesty the King before the vetting.
01:30He'd already got agreement from the US administration.
01:33The chair of the Select Committee said that.
01:34Mandelson was a done deal.
01:37Yesterday, Sir Ollie Robbins said that the focus was on getting Mandelson out to Washington quickly.
01:44He said the Prime Minister's team showed a dismissive attitude to vetting.
01:50And they even argued Peter Mandelson didn't need any vetting at all.
02:03Mr Speaker, let me deal with this directly, particularly this question of pressure in relation to the decision to appoint
02:11and to put into post Peter Mandelson.
02:13Sir Ollie Robbins could not have been clearer in his evidence yesterday.
02:17He said this.
02:19I didn't feel under pressure personally in terms of my judgment.
02:24His words.
02:25Mr Speaker, he went on to say,
02:30I have complete confidence that recommendations to me and the discussions we had and the decision we made were rigorously
02:38independent of any pressure.
02:40Mr Speaker, on top of that, he was asked if any conversations led him to believe that Mandelson needed to
02:49take up the role regardless of vetting outcome.
02:52He said, I can say with certainty, it was never put to me in that way.
02:57No pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case.
03:01Sir Ollie Robbins said yesterday that Peter Mandelson was given access to highly classified briefings even before he'd received clearance.
03:12That was a clear national security risk.
03:16How can the Prime Minister still maintain that full due process was followed?
03:23Mr Speaker, as a member of the House of Lords and Privy Councillor, and in accordance with guidance,
03:31documentation could have been provided to him and was provided to him.
03:36Strap material comes after developed vetting.
03:40But because he was a Privy Councillor, he could have access to other material before developed vetting.
03:49Will he confirm today, did he know his office was lobbying for a diplomatic job for Matthew Doyle?
03:57And were they doing it on his authority?
04:02Mr Speaker, as I said earlier, Matthew Doyle worked for many years in public service, for me as Prime Minister
04:08and other Ministers.
04:09When people leave roles in any organisation, there are very often conversations about other roles they may want to apply
04:17for.
04:18In this case, nothing came of it.
04:20Today marks...
04:24Today marks...
04:26Today marks...
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