While Charles and Camilla were on a three-line whip, MPs watched the excruciating discomfort of civil servants
We don’t often get to see senior civil servants out and about in the wild. They are kept away from the public gaze, sat behind a desk trying to persuade their ministers not to do something too catastrophic to their government department. Quite why they have been been made a knight or a dame just for doing their jobs is one of life’s mysteries. The rest of us have to make do with the occasional email from the boss. But in the last week, two top civil servants have been reluctantly made to give evidence on Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador before the foreign affairs select committee and very instructive it has been, too. Not least to see how much they dislike any extra attention from the public. Their obvious discomfort at being held to account was excruciating to watch.
First up before the select committee was Olly Robbins – a Sir, obviously – who had been permanent secretary at the Foreign Office until a week previously when Keir had sacked him for failing to mention that UK Security Vetting had given Mandy two red lights and recommended not sending him to Washington. Perhaps sensing that Starmer was desperate for Mandelson to go and had already announced his appointment, Robbins thought he could manage the risk. Now I’m sure that Olly is very, very clever. But for an intelligent man he came across as – how can I say this nicely? – a bit dim. Someone governed by the civil service manual and unable to think for himself. Because surely it was common sense to tell the prime minister Mandelson had failed the UKSV process. If the prime minister can’t be trusted with the most sensitive information, who can? But Olly would rather get the sack than use his own initiative. It was the same with Cat Little – only a CB – the Cabinet Office official in charge of finding and releasing evidence to parliament who appeared later in the week. She too was a total slave to process. Unable to confirm or deny anything unless someone had taken a record of it. And then taken a subsequent record of the record. The more she spoke the less sense she made. It was an education of sorts.
