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now Robbins is saying he didn't see the vetting form with the red box ticked to recommend against appointing Mandelson either. He's also claiming pressure and an "expectation" from Number 10 that the appointment would be approved. Which sounds a bit of a weird excuse : "my boss was not expecting me to do my job properly, so I didn't".

I don't think we're getting the full story here and I don't think we ever will, but it's clear Starmer knew Mandelson was dodgy and appointed him anyway, seeing the vetting as merely a box to be ticked which clearly is not how things should be done.

Should he resign for this? Yes, he probably should. At the very best he's been incompetent, incurious and shown extremely poor judgement as many people said at the time.

Will he? I very much doubt it.

I'm conflicted over this, I don't like him, don't think he's doing well as PM and will probably end up being forced out at some point well before the next GE. But equally I don't think the country needs any more turmoil and I certainly don't want the likes of Badenoch and Farage chalking up his removal as a win.