Foreign Affairs Committee
21 April 2026
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Foreign Affairs Committee House of Commons
00:06 - 00:50
Speaker 1
This is a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee and we are hearing the testimony of Robbins to sir Oliver Robbins to at our request for him to explain the circumstances of of Peter Mandelson's appointment and security implications of it and his role in in what happened next and in recent days what has happened in relation to leaks and and and so on. I think that it's very important that we that we hear from you. We heard from the Prime Minister yesterday and thank you very much for appearing. I know this is it must be a very difficult time for you personally and and we are very grateful to you for coming in.
00:50 - 00:51
Speaker 2
Thank you, chair.
00:52 - 02:07
Speaker 1
We're hoping that you're gonna feel a bit freer to give a full fuller answers to to us than you did on the last occasion you appeared in front of us on the November 3 or in your letter of the sixteenth of of September when you clearly told us the truth, but you only told us part of the truth. And it's a little bit like, you know, saying, I had to run to work today, but not saying that you were chased by a bear. It reminded me of when I was a criminal barrister and the importance of the oath being that you had to tell the truth and the whole truth. We're not going to ask you to to swear to swear to bible or to or anything like that, but I think that it is important that we do get the whole truth today, and and I don't intend to kind of dwell on the dwell on previous issues apart from just to say that now. Because what I'd like to do is just to move on to to where we are now and what the questions are.
And I think I think what I'd like to do is perhaps ask you to walk us through what the situation was when you appeared in the Foreign Office as permanent undersecretary. What was the state of play? And in particular, what was the status of Peter Mandelson? And what needed to happen next? And what did you need to do in order to ensure that happened?
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