Richard Sharp must have been one of the few non-journalists in Westminster today pleased by the reshuffle, as it distracted many away from his grilling at the hands of the DCMS Select Committee. He continued insisting, as per Boris’s “100% ding dang sure” claim, that he knew nothing about the then-PM’s personal finances and was only involved as a go-between because he knew Sam Blyth, who approached him about wanting to help Boris out, and referred him to Simon Case. The committee will surely be champing at the bit to get Case in front of them…

Sharp struggled the most when asked about why he failed to flag the potential conflict of interest to the committee. He constantly referred back to his meeting with Simon Case, who had agreed that he should have nothing further to do with the matter between Blyth and Johnson.

“I took comfort from that discussion I had from Mr Case.”

Implying that because he’d had the conversation, he then didn’t need to flag the issue to the committee. Kevin Brennan MP told him “I don’t think that’s good enough”…