Yesterday’s historic news that the UK has its first transgender MP – Jamie Wallis – was somewhat overshadowed by the PM’s gag at the previous night’s Tory dinner, when he opened with “Good evening ladies and gentleman. Or, as Keir Starmer would put it, people who are assigned female or male at birth”. Contrary to the anti-Boris point-scoring being peddled by much of the media, last night Wallis told Guido of the PM’s very generous private support of him. In keeping with his comments at PMQs last week that people wanting to transition should be “treated with the maximum possible generosity and respect”.

According to Wallis, Boris called him out of the blue a couple of hours after Guido first brought the announcement to public attention. Asking if Jamie could chat – something the Welsh MP said no one could say no to – the PM offered his full support: asking questions about what his announcement meant, how he wanted to be treated, questions about a new name or pronouns, and whether there’s anything the party could do to help. Wallis resisted joking about additional Levelling Up funds…

Beyond the PM, Jamie Wallis told Guido he’d never had more contact from ministers since the announcement. His constituents haven’t been unwelcoming either – one emailed in to congratulate the MP on his announcement. His constituent immediately got on to the issue that mattered most, slamming the MP for not fixing the pothole at the end of his road…