SpAd announcements are still drip-dripping onto Guido’s spreadsheet, and today Steve Barclay’s team has emerged rather fully formed. Alas for Barclay, his two longest-serving SpAds prior to him being sacked, Emma Dean and Amy Milner, have been drawn towards comfortable, well-paid billets in the private sector and aren’t returning. Instead Liz Truss’s month-long director of political strategy Iain Carter has taken a job, alongside Lionel Zetter who was brought in to help Barclay back in August.

Clarence Mitchell, founder of Clarence Mitchell Communications, has been brought in as a comms SpAd, and Guido hears Robert Ede of Policy Exchange is also likely to get a job.

The most eyebrow-raising of all is Macer Hall, who recently stepped down as political editor of the Daily Express. Guido hears he’s also been poached as a Barclay communications advisor.

By the look of it, Barclay must have the oldest SpAd team of any Westminster department in years…