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Order! Order!

Hello, I'm Sean Caren, and this is today in Parliament from BBC Radio 4 for Tuesday, the 21st of April,

when a former senior civil servant told MPs that Downing Street had applied constant pressure to speed up Peter

Mandelson's appointment as ambassador to the United States.

Never any interest, as far as I recall, in weather, but only an interest in when.

The Conservative leader accuses the Prime Minister of putting the country's national security at risk.

He must take responsibility. It is time for him to go.

And the Chancellor mocks the Lib Dems for pointing out that government fuel revenue has increased

since the start of the Iran War. A great fiscal policy is to close the strait of Hormuz.

I mean, why didn't we think of it when we came to office?

But first, the former head of the foreign office

has said he faced an atmosphere of constant pressure

to speed up the appointment of Peter Mandelson

as the British ambassador to the United States.

Sir Ollie Robbins, who was sacked last week in a row over Lord Mandelson's security vetting,

told the Foreign Affairs Committee that by the time he started his job in January 2025,

Peter Mandelson's appointment had already been announced and agreed by the US government.

I walked into a situation in which there was already a very, very strong expectation.

And you will have seen the papers released already under the humble address

that coming from number 10, that he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as

humanly possible. The humble address is the parliamentary mechanism that's forced the government

...