DEFENCE

Secretary Gavin Williamson says his wife, Joanne, reckons that he’s going through the manopause because he owns a pet tarantula. ‘My wife thinks it’s very odd,’ he admits at a bash at the Irish embassy. ‘She says it’s my mid-life crisis, but she’d rather me having a tarantula than having an affair.’ Oops! Poor Joanne does have reason to be suspicious. Earlier this year, Williamson, 41, who’s touted as a potential PM, said she had forgiven him for a brief office romance with a former colleague.