While Team Rishi spent the entire leadership race last year insisting they were keeping their distance from Dominic Cummings – Rishi claimed he hadn’t seen the man since he quit in 2020 – this eyebrow-raising picture has been doing the rounds in SW1 WhatsApps in recent days. It shows Cummings himself clapping away merrily at the wedding reception of… Liam Booth-Smith and Olivia Oates. Booth-Smith ran Rishi’s campaign, and is now his Chief of Staff.

The wedding reception was held just weeks before Rishi entered Downing Street last October. Number 10 insisted he’d have “no role” in Rishi’s government and was not involved in his leadership bid. Close enough to get a wedding invite from the most senior aide in Downing Street though…