Thanks very much, Chair.
This committee has been marked by a series of Conservative fishing expeditions from what I can tell.
I want to start with the first one, which is this assessment by my Conservative colleagues without any clear evidence—but they keep asking questions on this front—that there's some cozy relationship between you and former minister Navdeep Bains and that you weren't appointed because of your experience, your background and on merit. What was your relationship to Mr. Bains before your appointment? Were you friends?
Let's start with that. Were you friends?