Sir Olly Robbins to face committee | Mobile phones to be banned in schools in England? | Nike faces backlash from walkers
Cheat Sheet with Ridge & Frost
Sky News
4.0 • 224 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
Sir Keir Starmer told MPs yesterday in the House of Commons that officials in the Foreign Office deliberately and repeatedly withheld the fact Lord Mandelson initially failed security vetting for the role of US ambassador.
But his version of events could be challenged today by Sir Olly Robbins, the top civil servant at the Foreign Office who left his post last week, who will face the Foreign Affairs Select Committee at 9am.
US vice president JD Vance is expected to travel to Pakistan for a second round of talks with Iran today, but it is unclear if Iran will attend.
The government has made another U-turn, this time on banning mobile phones in schools in England.
Apple has a new CEO after Tim Cook announced he would be stepping down, to be replaced by John Ternus.
Nike has been accused of shaming walkers in adverts that have appeared at different locations for parkruns across south London.
Sophy and Wilf have the day's news in just 10 minutes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sky News, the full story first. |
| 0:10.8 | Sir Olly Robbins, the former civil servant at the heart of the Mandelson Vetting saga is going to give his version of events when he speaks to a parliamentary committee today. |
| 0:21.0 | Vice President Vance is expected to lead a US delegation to Pakistan today for talks with Iran. |
| 0:27.2 | Will Iran actually turn up? |
| 0:31.8 | Hello, you're listening to Cheek-She, a 10-minute podcast on the day's news. |
| 0:35.5 | It is Tuesday, the 21st of April. |
| 0:38.5 | I'm Sophie Ridge. |
| 0:45.1 | And I'm Wilfrost. Also today, Nike faces a backlash from park runners for its advertising which shames walkers. |
| 0:51.8 | Today, the focus turns the former chief civil servant at the Foreign Office, Ollie Robbins, who will be live on Sky News at 9 a.m. |
| 0:55.7 | Following a day where the Prime Minister had a torrid few hours in Parliament, |
| 1:03.1 | explaining once again what he did and didn't know when relating to the appointment of Lord Mandelson. |
| 1:09.6 | So, if you, what stood out for you from yesterday? |
| 1:11.8 | The Prime Minister's argument yesterday was that he was furious at everyone else for not telling him about the vetting issue, right? |
| 1:20.9 | I guess the problem for Kiristan, I still think, falls down on the fact that there was an awful lot alone about Lord Mandelson, Peter Mandelson, |
| 1:29.2 | being a liability before. He was sacked twice, right? You know, this is a guy who we know |
| 1:33.3 | had a friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, who we know had a company, a lobbying firm with links |
| 1:38.4 | to Chinese companies, and he's furious that everyone else for not telling him that Peter |
| 1:42.3 | Mandelson was a liability. I mean, there's a judgment call here. |
| 1:45.5 | But really, we kind of knew what the PM was going to say yesterday. |
| 1:49.0 | What we don't know is what Ollie Robbins is going to say this morning. |
| 1:53.3 | And I think this is why today is going to be such a big deal. |
| 1:57.7 | My sense is that he is going to overall back the prime minister's account, right? He's going to say that he didn't tell number 10 that Peter Madelson failed this, the security vetting for the role of US ambassador, which will be a relief for number 10, of course. But there's going to be more to it than that, |
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