Olly Robbins refused to give Mandelson vetting summary to Cabinet Office, says Cat Little
Olly Robbins refused to hand Peter Mandelson’s vetting summary to the Cabinet Office, the civil servant who leads the department has said.The summary – which would have revealed that Robbins, the now-sacked Foreign Office head, had granted Mandelson clearance against the advice of security officials – was instead provided to Cat Little by UK Security Vetting (UKSV), she told MPs.Giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee, Little, the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, disputed the claim by Robbins that her department had suggested Mandelson might not need vetting at all.Citing “a number of emails” that she had reviewed, she said it had actually been the Foreign Office that raised the possibility of Mandelson not needing to be vetted given he was a member of the House of Lords.Little backed Keir Starmer’s insistence that normal processes were followed over how Mandelson was checked, saying: “So my view is that due process was followed.
”However, she said there did not appear to be any formal record of Starmer approving Mandelson’s appointment.Saying it was “normal to keep a record of those sorts of decisions”, Little was asked to confirm that one did not seem to exist in this case.She replied: “I have shared with you the information that we have.”Questioned by Emily Thornberry, the committee chair, Little confirmed evidence from Robbins on Tuesday that there had been internal debate about whether to release vetting documents about Mandelson to parliament.Little’s department has been gathering documents connected to Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US, in response to a Commons “humble address” motion forcing their release.
As part of this, she told the committee, Robbins – who was dismissed as Foreign Office permanent secretary after it emerged that Downing Street was not told Mandelson was initially refused security clearance – resisted her department seeing vetting documents.There was, she explained, “lots of debate and discussion about how to treat vetting information”, which included a meeting in mid-March with Robbins and his team, after being told about the existence of a summary as to why Mandelson was refused vetting.“I specifically asked to see this document in any decision-making audit trail around those judgments,” she said.“At the time, it was made clear to me that that information would not be forthcoming.”In response, Little said, she “took the very unusual judgment” to go directly to UKSV, the department that sits within the Cabinet Office, so she would be able to comply with the Commons motion to provide all the information about Mandelson.
This was, she said, “a responsibility unique to me, and I take very seriously,I felt that I needed to see some relevant documentation so that I could advise the prime minister as to whether we had fully complied [with the Commons motion] and gathered the information that was available and within scope,”This included, she said, commissioning legal advice “on the treatment of that document and its relevance to the scope of the humble address”,Questioned on the claim that the idea of Mandelson not needing to be vetted at all had been suggested, Little said this was suggested by the Foreign Office,Emails she had seen, she said, “set out … a very reasonable policy conversation between security officials whereby the Foreign Office personnel security team get in touch with UKSV and the government security group in the Cabinet Office and ask the question: could they get some advice?“Because the presumption had been that given Peter Mandelson had been a member of the House of Lords, that the longstanding convention that he didn’t require developed vetting was assumed, and they wanted to get proper policy advice from experts on whether that was the case.
”The response, she said, was that this was a decision for the Foreign Office, but that vetting was needed.Asked about the delay between her first knowing in late March that Mandelson had been initially blocked and Keir Starmer being told on 14 April, Little rejected the idea that there had been an undue delay, saying she had to first seek advice.She said: “I believe I have a responsibility to handle that sensitive information within the framework of both the law and the guidance that I am subject to, and I did not feel that I could share that information until I understood the consequences and the authority that I had to share the information.”She added: “It took the time between 25 March and telling the prime minister on 14 April, and I truly believe that I acted as swiftly and effectively and appropriately as I could.”
The Hours won awards for Nicole Kidman’s fake nose – and hearts as a queer classic
Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer prize-winning book The Hours – inspired by Virginia Woolf’s seminal 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway – imagines one day in the lives of three women separated across time periods. The triptych follows Woolf in the throes of writing Mrs Dalloway; Laura Brown, a depressed housewife who is reading Woolf’s novel in postwar America; and Clarissa Vaughan, a New Yorker who acts as a contemporary embodiment of Woolf’s titular character.Cunningham’s 1998 text, though widely acclaimed, was initially deemed unadaptable due to its nonlinear structure and stream-of-consciousness approach that paid homage to Woolf’s pioneering style. However, since its publication, The Hours (which takes its name from Mrs Dalloway’s working title), has been reinterpreted as an opera and, most notably, a 2002 film directed by Stephen Daldry.As the title suggests, the film explores the ways in which the routine of a single day can be at once beautiful in its ordinariness or seismic in its oppressive mundanity
Vanessa’s a pillar of the hiking community | Brief letters
Your report (Campaigners seek listed status for historic trig points that mapped Britain, 16 April) didn’t mention the Vanessa trig point – Vanessa being a corruption of the Venesta company, which made cardboard tubes into which the concrete for the pillars was poured. These were designed for less accessible places, mostly in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I was never less than half exhausted when I met one.Margaret SquiresSt Andrews, FifeThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Zoologist, author and presenter Desmond Morris dies aged 98
The zoologist Desmond Morris, perhaps best known for his book The Naked Ape and his work on the ITV programme Zoo Time, has died aged 98.Morris’s son Jason paid tribute to him after his death on Sunday, praising his many professional achievements as well as his role as a father and grandfather.“His was a lifetime of exploration, curiosity and creativity,” Jason said. “A zoologist, manwatcher, author and artist, he was still writing and painting right up until his death. He was a great man and an even better father and grandfather
V&A East Storehouse and Norwich Castle among finalists for museum of the year
The V&A East Storehouse, the National Gallery and an accessible castle in Norwich are among the contenders for this year’s Art Fund museum of the year award, the most prestigious UK prize in the sector.The annual prize offers the winner £120,000, with £20,000 going to each of the other finalists, who the Art Fund’s director, Jenny Waldman, said had all “innovated in different ways”.This year’s list is dominated by some of the biggest names in the cultural sector that have undergone big refurbishments or invested in significant new outposts, such as the V&A’s East Storehouse, which will be seen by many as a frontrunner.Based in the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, the space aims to reimagine what a storeroom can be, with partitions removed so visitors can see “and breathe the same air” as the objects. Waldman said the V&A Storehouse, which opened in spring 2025 at a cost of £65m, had broken the boundaries of what a store could be
Letter: Sir Neil Cossons obituary
In 1971, Neil Cossons and I were on the staff of Liverpool Museum, and he invited me to accompany him on a visit to Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. We admired Blists Hill furnace, the bridge, the surrounding buildings and their setting, and shortly afterwards he became its director.The appeal it had as a monument to the industrial revolution lay in it being a complete entity. Many other site-based museums rely on translocating buildings, often into a replicated local landscape. History occurs in places, and Neil knew that raising one’s gaze from the built artefacts to the landscape enables understanding: preserving the place was crucial
‘Women want to experience pleasure’: how the female gaze caught the attention of film, TV and fiction
From passionate romantasy novels to premium television dramas, culture is bringing the agency, desires and interior lives of women to the fore. It’s proving good for business, but is this a permanent revolution?Do you voraciously read the pages of steamy romantasy bestsellers by Sarah J Maas or Rebecca Yarros? Or flood your group chat with breathless recaps of the latest goings-on in TV series such as Heated Rivalry or Bridgerton? Or even immerse yourself in the divisive and challenging cinematic worlds of Emerald Fennell? If so, you surely can’t have failed to notice that in pop culture, the female gaze – storytelling that highlights the meandering, textured, sublimely messy inner worlds and wants of women – is enjoying an explosion.On TV, you can see it everywhere, in the interior lives and desires taken up by Big Little Lies, Sirens or Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington’s Little Fires Everywhere. Romantasy harbours it in the shape of powerful maidens and sex in fae (fairy) realms, while Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and Promising Young Woman are marketed with the promise of converting women’s experiences into dark beauty on the big screen.A shift, a moment or a commercial juggernaut? That depends how deeply you look
Parents: have you noticed younger children wanting to try skincare products?
One person diagnosed with cancer every 80 seconds in UK, report reveals
HRT maker censured by UK regulator for ‘systemic failures’ that put patients at risk
‘This is our moment as British Muslims’: MCB leader takes inspiration from New York mayor
Temporary accommodation linked to deaths of 104 children in England in six years
Bill banning people born after 2008 from buying tobacco clears UK parliament