Labour’s Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, described the Met Police’s investigation into alleged Downing Street parties as “a truly damning reflection on this nation’s highest office”.

Rayner told Michale Ellis, the paymaster general, that “the country have made up their minds”, and asked him “when will his party catch up?”

Ellis responded by saying the details of the investigation were “for the Cabinet Office and the police” and that they would “conduct the investigation as they see fit”.