Good Morning Britain ground to a halt as Olly Robbins addressed MPs.
Sir Keir Starmer is facing a huge backlash following his speech (Image: Getty)
Good Morning Britain ground to a screeching halt this morning (Tuesday, April 20) as sacked civil servant Olly Robbins gave evidence to MPs over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal. Robbins was dismissed last Thursday after Sir Keir Starmer discovered that he hadn’t been told by Robbins that Mandelson had failed the process to become the US Ambassador. His appearance comes after the Prime Minister told a lively House of Commons on Monday that a “deliberate decision” was taken to withhold information about Mandelson’s vetting from him. Meanwhile, Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch is set to hold an emergency debate on the issues in the Commons later today.
Susanna Reid had a lot to say on Olly Robbins’ hearing (Image: ITV)
As a breaking news banner flashed across the screen, political correspondent Louisa James said: “He’s expected to say in approving Peter Mandelson, he was doing what the Prime Minister wanted.”
“It’s going to be another day of complex detail about White Hall processes,” she said before adding: “Even Ed Miliband said, ‘Whatever way you look at it, it’s not going to be good for this government.'”
The ITV programme then cut to Robbins giving evidence on vetting in the House of Commons, where he told Emily Thornberry: “The focus was on getting Mandelson out to Washington quickly.”
Robbins added: “For my team in the foreign office and certainly the handover briefing I was getting as I arrived at post was what I felt was a generally dismissive attitude to his vetting clearance.”
“It’s very clear Sir Olly Robbins feels he had no choice but to clear Lord Mandelson,” Reid said as the show cut back to her and Balls in the Good Morning Britain studio. “He’s just said, ‘It was all going ahead, I was under pressure.'”
“If it carries on like that for the next hour, it’s going to be very shocking,” Balls chimed in.
Good Morning Britain airs on weekdays from 6am in ITV and ITVX.