Most Tory MPs are keeping shtum, a couple are putting their heads above the parapet, only one is actively making the situation more difficult for No. 10: Simon Hoare. On Sky News this afternoon he informed viewers:

“This was a party organised to say, in the first instance, ‘welcome back PM’… it was also a way of saying thank you to Dominic Raab for holding the fort…”

Despite prefacing this seemingly new detail with “and this is sort of a third-hand understanding”, Simon didn’t think to double-check this fact with No. 10, nor the Deputy PM. Raab’s office has now had to formally deny this claim and say it is “categorically untrue – he wasn’t invited and didn’t attend”. Hoare’s intervention will no doubt have raabed Downing Street up the wrong way…