Tom Tugendhat’s “Clean start” slogan is beginning to sound a bit like “strong and stable”. He and his backers say it in every other sentence. A clean start from what? Presumably the culture of lackadaisical rule-following in Downing Street, not least over Partygate where we continually heard the mantra “rule makers can’t be rule breakers”. Unfortunately for Tom, one co-conspirator snapped this rule-breaking moment of his own in Parliament this morning…

According to parliament’s rule book “smoking is not permitted on the parliamentary estate except in designated areas in the following locations: The Terrace, North Terrace, Black Rod’s Garden… Smoking in a no smoking area on either the Commons or Lords estate could lead to disciplinary action”. To be fair to Tom, this morning’s leadership speech did acknowledge that “even well-intended rules can become stifling”…