Circumstantial evidence leads us to suspect that Prince Charles’ Cabinet Office mole is Nick Hurd’s former private secretary Laura Osbaldeston. Cambridge graduate Osbaldeston began a two year secondment to the Cabinet Office in 2011 after working for a “private household” for five years. She worked her way up from assistant private secretary to private secretary to Hurd, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Civil Society. Her Facebook page gives the game away, professing her support for the Prince’s Rainforest Project.

When Guido asked to speak to Laura, the Cabinet Office replied that “we have no one of that name working here”. They refused to confirm or deny that she had worked there previously, even after Guido read out her LinkedIn profile down the phone. They wouldn’t tell us the date she left either. They refused to deny that she was on secondment from the Household of the Prince of Wales. All the evidence points to Laura Osbaldesten being Charles’ Cabinet Office spy. Ironically a few months ago Francis Maude told Guido we would never find out the name of the heir to the throne’s Cabinet Office mole…