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Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Tuesday, the 21st of April, a former top civil servant

lifted the curtain on Dining Street's determination

to get Peter Mandelson cleared to go to Washington as ambassador

before Donald Trump took up residence in the White House.

The top civil servant at the Foreign Office watched his long and careful civil service career

suddenly go down in flames last Thursday.

Who knows what anguish Sir Ollie Robbins expressed their family or friends when he got home that night.

But appearing in front of MPs at the Foreign Affairs Committee, he managed to keep it light.

It's nice to the committee to keep thanking me for my time. My diary is wide open.

Well, the day before, the Prime Minister had told Parliament that it was staggering and beggared belief

that he was not told that Peter Mandelson had failed top-level security vetting

to be UK ambassador to Washington.

And that's why he sacked Sir Ollie Robbins.

Now it was the ex-Manderin's chance to explain his point of view.

Although he didn't take up the top job till

later, he described how he understood things to be back at the end of 2024. Downing Street was

looking at the prospect of Donald Trump about to become US president. So the focus then was really

not on Peter Mandelson's often vivid backstory,

but how he could help with the Trump White House.

The handover briefing I was getting as I arrived at Post

...