Sir Mark attended his last ever Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, as Simon Case prepares to step up to the top civil service job. As a parting gift, Boris gave Sedwill sketches of Queen Elizabeth I’s Principal Secretary Francis Walsingham and Chief Minister to King Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell. Get the look: for the price of just £215, you too can own these classic portraits, purchased from Sanders of Oxford…

Given the current row over the Irish border, the gifts may not have been the most thought through. Thomas Cromwell extended royal rule over Ireland and exported Protestantism, while Walsingham supported plantations in the country, increasing tensions between the Irish and English settlers that “had lasting effects on the history of Ireland.” That, in the current context, doesn’t make this the best look…