Sonia Khan, who worked in No. 10 and the Treasury during the premierships of David Cameron and Theresa May, says daytime drinking has long been normalised in Downing Street. She told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that historic use was “totally different” to the allegations of partying while the public was ordered to abide by restrictions to tackle coronavirus.

The former SpAd, who was sacked by Dominic Cummings, explained

“Usually these drinking sessions are sandwiched between pieces of work, so it feels like a very, very routine thing… Drinks could start at lunch time, they could start a little bit later in the day – different teams do things very differently – but the idea of mini fridges or having drinks underneath your table wasn’t uncommon.”

Downing Street denizens are kicking back at the idea that they are running the country constantly half-cut. Guido would only point out that Winston Churchill was half-cut when prosecuting the war and that the Royal Navy conquered half the world with drunken sailors. It is a well established scientific fact that wine aids creativity… and we sorely need some inspired creativity to get the country going at full throttle again.

UPDATE: Yvette Cooper got all outraged at the drinking tales and said it wasn’t like that before 2010. Tony Blair’s daily intake, according to his memoir, A Journey, was a “stiff whisky or G and T before dinner, couple of glasses of wine or even half a bottle with it…”. As he describes it “not excessively excessive”. Something for Boris to consider, Harold Wilson used to drink before PMQs!