PETERBOROUGH

Lady May left out

Theresa May read David Harkins’ poem ‘She is gone’ at this week’s memorial service to the much-loved Tory MP Dame Cheryl Gillan, who died in April.

The former prime minister, inset, was styled “The Right Honourable Lady May” in the Order of Service produced for the congregation at St Margaret’s Church just over the road from the Palace of Westminster. While she will continue to be styled “The Right Honourable Theresa May MP” in public life, in private she has decided to be known as “Lady May” after her husband Philip was knighted for his political service to the country.

But it seems odd to me that May has not been honoured by

the Queen in her own right. After all, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher received peerages and John Major was knighted. Yet no prime minister has been honoured by the Queen since Tony Blair had the job. I wonder why?

Any questions?

Boris Johnson is set to announce who will chair the official inquiry into the Government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic within the next fortnight.

I understand that a long list compiled by the Cabinet Office includes a retired Supreme Court judge and (apparently the most likely option) a former head of the Civil Service. One bet is Lord O’donnell, who as Gus O’donnell was Cabinet secretary from 2005 to 2011 in both the Conservative and Labour governments.

It is the kind of job that will make or break the reputation of whoever accepts it. And it might take years to come to any conclusions, so the successful chairman will have to be sprightly. Buckle up!

A bridge too far

Speculation is growing about a planned monument to the Duke of Edinburgh, who died earlier this year.

A well placed source tells me that “all options” are on the table in the high level talks involving the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge. Charles and William intend that there is a single memorial to Philip – rather than several small monuments – and, I am told, are adamant it should not be funded by taxpayers. This means that any monument is likely to be paid for by public subscription.

Buckingham Palace is tight-lipped but I hear one ambitious plan – to rename a bridge over the Thames after Prince Philip (Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, has one) – is fading as a possibility.

She will rock you

Lingerie model Tigerlily Taylor, below, has been looking for a career change, recently putting out an appeal to the 70,000 followers of her Instagram account for “work in some form of music or art”.

Her CV includes a degree in English Literature from Sussex University, as well as multiple stints at London Fashion Week. But you can see why music would be a good fit. Her father is Queen drummer Roger Taylor.

He’d surely go Radio Ga Ga to see his daughter following in her old man’s footsteps.

The proverbial bad smell

Spotted at the Conservative Friends of Israel annual lunch this week was former chancellor George Osborne, above right, rubbing shoulders with Boris Johnson and half the Cabinet. Osborne – who sat with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss – certainly likes being around politicians. The CFI lunch was his third Tory engagement in as many months. He also gave an interview to the Conservative Home website this week in which he gave the following alarming advice to Boris Johnson: “You never know how long you’ve got in office, and the wheel turns, and then suddenly you’re out.”

When I ask if Osborne is considering a comeback, his friends say he just likes to “revisit old haunts” and he is happy where he is. But some MPS will be asking: for how long?

Yours sincerely, Jeffrey

Best-selling author Jeffrey Archer told a Telegraph subscribers’ event last week about how pressure from readers who wrote to him in droves saved “wicked” Lady Virginia Fenwick from being axed in his Clifton Chronicles saga because they loved her character so much. The lesson, he says, is that it is always worth putting pen to paper to complain – and especially to the BBC.

“I remember a journalist at the BBC,” he said, “telling me, ‘If the BBC gets five letters it influences them … if we get 10, 15 or 20, it is getting serious’.”

Time to find the ink pot!