As news broke of a fast-moving coup attempt in Russia over the weekend, as is customary, the Shadow Foreign Secretary was offered an intelligence briefing with the latest updates on Privy Council terms as a courtesy from the government. David Lammy even thanked James Cleverly at the despatch box yesterday for offering “His Majesty’s Official Opposition” this intelligence. Guido couldn’t help noticing the ambiguity of that language. He didn’t say “thanks for providing me with that intelligence”…

There’s good reason for that: Lammy didn’t attend the briefing at all. Despite thanking Cleverly for briefing potentially the next government on crucial foreign policy matters, the Shadow Foreign Secretary himself wasn’t even there. He was, however, on his Sunday radio show for LBC, putting in the hard graft for the second job which has netted him over £60,000 since March 2022. David was on-air for three whole hours. At one point he even claims “there is nothing you can put between myself and James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, in relation to how we want to support Ukraine”. Nothing, apart from a cushty radio phone-in show…

Guido approached Labour for comment. They refused to be drawn on who attended the briefing, and pointed towards his ambiguous Commons statement. Guido hears Lammy wasn’t even in London at the time and had to speak to Cleverly over the phone – which would mean that any briefing would be in general terms only for obvious security reasons. It’s not clear which country Lammy was in, or what he was doing there. His radio show was done remotely…

The Leader of the Opposition will have noted the absence of his would-be Foreign Secretary from the briefing, because he went to it. Something for Keir to reflect on as he considers his forthcoming reshuffle…

As it happens, Guido notes that when the government hosted the Ukraine Recovery Conference last week, His Majesty’s Opposition’s most senior foreign policy voice was also missing in action. Despite receiving an invite, Lammy was busy in Glasgow, prioritising collecting an honorary degree.