Eyebrows were raised when Brown-era hire Mark Flanagan was not “thank-you-and-goodbyed” out of the Downing Street media team after the election. Instead he was forced upstairs to a strategy role when the Coalition arrived. As a civil servant Flanagan is impartial, but there is no hiding his obvious Labour past.

It is well-known that Flanagan very nearly became the Labour candidate for the Bromley by-election in June 2006. However what he describes as another “well known fact” might actually come as a surprise to those outside Labour circles. Flanagan applied to be General Secretary of the Labour Party. He was pipped to the post by Peter Watt back in January 2006, and the rest is history.

You can bet Flanagan has kept that one quiet in the last few months…