Rishi has finally got round to appointing an independent adviser on ministers’ interests, with Chairman of Historic England Sir Laurie Magnus getting the unenviable job. Unlike the last Ministerial Code forward, signed off on by Boris, Rishi re-promises to ensure “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.” The role has been vacant for six months…

Sir Laurie is an old Etonian who went to Oxford and then became an investment banker, so presumably No. 10 has little to fear in the way of Magnus wanting to come in and shake up the system. He seems fairly sound, previously making headlines when condemning the statue topplers during the 2020 BLM protests.

The lobby will no doubt now resume its campaign to have the independent advisor be able to initiate investigations without the approval of the PM, thereby making an unaccountable advisor the most powerful person in the land. Hopefully Rishi will deal with these calls as he is the strikes – by ignoring them…