Amongst the three-day-long period of outrage from the media class over Andrew Sabisky’s hiring, the question of what his day-to-day ‘contractor’ role is within Downing Street remains shrouded in mystery.

The current rumour doing the rounds is that Sabisky is working on the Government’s defence review announced in Boris’s post-election Queen’s Speech. No one’s been able to stand this up yet, either via Downing Street or the MoD. When updating his SpAd list today, Guido noticed that the abrupt firing of advisor Christopher Brannigan on Saturday left a gaping hole in Downing Street’s Policy Unit. What was Brannigan’s brief? Defence…

Beyond cognitive research, Sabisky has spent years banging on about defence strategy and spending, most famously flamboyantly appearing on Daily Politics to call on the Government to triple defence spending and, as Guido uncovered this morning, has quite a dim view of the Government’s previous choices for defence secretaries – calling Gavin Williamson and Penny Mordaunt “proper morons”.