Party political campaigns raise tricky issues for serving Cabinet Ministers and their Special Advisers. There are stringent rules in place to prevent official residences, resources and staff from being used for party political purposes, so Guido was slightly surprised to see this report last night:

“The Sun can also reveal that the senior Cabinet minister’s official residence, 1 Carlton Gardens, was taken over on Monday by a large support team to help him practice.”

Hacks were also bemused to find their morning Hunt campaign WhatsApp blast from Hunt’s SpAd Tim Smith including information about a Foreign Office media trail ahead of a conference starting tomorrow. Alongside a range of highly personal attack lines on Boris…

SpAds were informed in no uncertain terms last month that “you are permitted to take part in leadership campaign activity whilst remaining in post, but any campaigning should be done in your own time and not using departmental resources.” If a SpAd is doing ministerial work they shouldn’t be doing leadership campaign work, if they’re working on leadership they shouldn’t be doing departmental business – or getting paid. The Cabinet Office might not be too impressed by Team Hunt mixing business and pleasure like this…

Read the SpAd guidance in full below: