Partygate: Who hasn’t asked their interior designer to join them for a social gathering?

As questions continue to swirl around Boris Johnson’s birthday ambush, Will Gore happily recalls drinking sherry with his decorator

The reimagining of the decor in the PM’s Downing Street flat has come under considerable scrutiny (PA)

Much has been made of the prime minister’s predilection for pandemic “parties” – or “gatherings”, or “work events”, or whatever one might want to call them.

So toxic has Partygate become for Boris Johnson, that his allies are now spending much of their time telling the media how outrageous it is that the PM’s opponents are spending so much of their time talking about it – when they all ought to be focused on possible war with Russia.

That is rather an implausible idea, given the obvious anger that exists over Boris’s apparent transgressions. It also supposes that anything a British MP might say could have a direct influence over whether Vladimir Putin decides to send troops into Ukraine. Our best bet on that front might be to invite him round to one of the PM’s “work events” and get him sufficiently sloshed that he agrees to send the soldiers home.