His approach makes a contrast with some of his colleagues, who have been more open about their driving habits. In 2019 Jacob Rees-Mogg gave an interview in which he was photographed standing proudly in front of his two Bentleys. One from 1936, a 3.5 litre in Tory Blue, and a 1968 T1 model, in silver. Two Bentleys came in handy, he explained, when it came to transporting his wife, their six children and their nanny. He added that he drove around 1,000 miles a year, mainly to church and village fetes. It is not for us to speculate about why one of the leading advocates for Brexit might have been drawn to an impractical, wildly expensive icon of England’s past, which might break down at any minute. 

Iain Duncan Smith, his colleague and a trained HGV driver, has a similar taste for the bygone. In 2002, the year after he became Tory leader, he bought his beloved Morgan Plus 4 in British racing green. On the face of it, this is a surprisingly glamorous vehicle for a politician who is hardly a byword for excitement. Interviewed about his car, he explained that when you drive it you “feel every bump in the road,” which may have struck a chord with colleagues who remembered his short and disastrous stint as opposition leader.