The Lobby will be losing one of their more familiar faces after conference season. Though nothing has been confirmed Media Guido understands that the Times politics desk will be shaken up with Sam Coates moving to become Banking Editor. Some will see that as a sideways move. Though it’s a higher profile beat these days and the Times business desk will perhaps benefit from having someone with Treasury contacts.

If Coates is thinking beyond a career in journalism, knowledge of the financial sector never did highly paid lobbyists any harm…