Gavin’s week just keeps getting better: after his Rashford racism row yesterday, this morning he’s getting it in the neck for telling the conference of Universities UK to get back to teaching students in person – a speech he delivered via Zoom…

The survey shows that in-person teaching is now one of the top three areas singled out for improvement by students.

This is something we cannot ignore. While the switch to online teaching was a necessary and vital way of keeping young people learning in as safe a way as possible, we have now moved on and students quite rightly expect that they can study in person alongside other students.

Imagine trying to make sense of the subtleties of interpreting Chekov for the stage or carrying out complex molecular biology techniques over Zoom. I for one would need the full benefit of that in-person, world-class teaching that you and your members can rightly be so proud of.

Is Boris regretting chickening out of that reshuffle?