TIME FOR AN OFFICE REFURB?

IT IS meant to be Boris Johnson’s equivalent of the Oval Office – the small ‘den’ by the Cabinet Room which has served as the Prime Minister’s office since Tony Blair’s time in No10. But in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s palatial surroundings the den is cramped, with threadbare carpets, trailing wires and books stuffed carelessly on to shelves next to family pictures – including, since Boris moved in, one of him with Carrie and baby Wilfred.

A table in the middle of the room serves as a meeting area, with a small sofa stuffed in the corner used as ‘spillover’. The only clue to the status of the occupant is the securely-encrypted ‘red phone’ used to talk to fellow world leaders which sits by the window overlooking the No10 garden.

Mr Blair used the room to meet aides in the relaxed, laid-back style later described pejoratively as ‘sofa government’. Gordon Brown preferred an office at No12, but when David Cameron became PM in 2010 he resumed operations from the den. Theresa May, characteristically, ditched a sofa and replaced it with the table to lend the room a more ‘serious’ air.