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There’s still a lot we do not know about what to expect from Robbins in front of MPspublished at 08:44 BST

08:44 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

We have at least a partial sense of what Olly Robbins will say to MPs later, from what his allies have been saying publicly and privately over the past few days.

Remember, the fact that Robbins did not tell Sir Keir Starmer about the recommendation of the security vetting agency is not in dispute.

Robbins will argue that he was forbidden under government rules from informing the PM about the judgement formed by the vetting agency on the path to Lord Mandelson ultimately being approved as US ambassador.

That is now challenged by the government which has published a different interpretation of the rules.

We also think he will say that his decision to put mitigations in place – but give Mandelson clearance – was a reasonable one in the circumstances.

But there’s a lot more that we do not know.

We do not know what precise explanation Robbins will give for not having told Starmer or fellow senior officials about this element of the vetting process afterwards, once the appointment had unravelled and they were facing repeated public questioning about it.

We do not know if he will argue that he felt pressured into approving the appointment of Mandelson given he had already been publicly appointed.

On a related note, we do not know what he might have to say about one of the big questions of yesterday: whether the vetting should have been conducted before Mandelson’s appointment was announced.

We don’t know if he will strike a different tone to his appearance before the same committee in November when he said the government had “ample time to assess and decide” on the vetting agency’s verdict on Mandelson.

And finally we don’t know how personal or otherwise he will be.

Yesterday the prime minister spent a long time in the House of Commons attacking his judgement. That’s quite a position for a senior civil servant to find himself in. Will he respond in kind? Not long to find out now.