Guido caught deputy defence minister Johnny Mercer making his less-than-complimentary position on Special Advisers known to a meeting of grassroots group Conservative Progress last night. After months of more-than-usual SpAd prominence in the media, it seems Johnny’s finally burst:

• “Bless them, I think they get a bit carried away with themselves and how important they are after a little while.”
• “I hear this stuff about SpAds all the time, that you know they have more power than junior ministers, you know it’s just a load of rubbish I’m afraid.”
• “Their importance certainly gets overstated, largely by themselves.”
• “I’m all up for people getting involved in politics but the correct route through it is to, you know, get your causes, seek elected office, and change the country. Not to use the party political machine just to hang around in the hope that someone moves on and you can get a seat.”
• “The last ten days or so has reaffirmed all the views I’ve had over a pretty long period of time about people who try to play at politics as if it’s some sort of theory.”

If Mercer ever makes cabinet Guido would pay to be a fly on the wall in his SpAd interviews…