The big picture, after today’s evidence from Sir Olly Robbins, the former boss of the Foreign Office, sacked by Keir Starmer, is becoming clear.

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It isn’t a pretty one. The Prime Minister says he is furious and incredulous he wasn’t told about Peter Mandelson‘s vetting. Robbins says that’s because he wasn’t interested: Number Ten was “dismissive” of it.

The Foreign Office had been put under “constant pressure” to clear Mandelson, in phone call after phone call. Having decided to check his suitability only after appointing him - against advice - Downing Street simply wanted to know when the peer was going to be given a thumbs-up by the system. This had to be done as fast as humanly possible: there had never been any interest “in whether, but only an interest in when.”

The main problem for the prime minister is that this makes his posture in the Commons yesterday look........

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