Five things we learned from Cat Little’s evidence to MPs about the Mandelson saga

Cat Little said Olly Robbins resisted sending her a summary of why Peter Mandelson was initially refused vetting clearance. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA

In more than 90 minutes of evidence to the foreign affairs select committee about the Peter Mandelson scandal, Cat Little, the head civil servant in the Cabinet Office, was low key and often cautious.

But she did reveal several pieces of new information – or at times information different from that given to the same committee by Olly Robbins, the former permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office.