Earlier in her testimony, she said:
The Clerk said that the Prime Minister is quite determined, quite firm, but he wants to know why the DPA route, which Parliament provided for, isn't being used. He said, “I think he is going to find a way to get it done, one way or another....So he is in that kind of mood....”
Can you not see that she might reasonably interpret those words, if they were in fact said, as code—as a sinister effort to get her to change her mind? Couldn't a reasonable person hear that and conclude, as she did, that it was very much a veiled threat?