Alex Chalk reveals a surprising role model

At Obiter Towers we’re indebted to our colleague, the venerable Spectator magazine’s Steerpike, for uncovering which treasures from the Parliamentary Art Collection adorn the offices of the two front benches. 

Much of the collection is predictable: Rishi Sunak, for instance, has portraits of William Pitt the Younger, Robert Peel, Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill on his walls. Sir Keir Starmer goes for bland landscapes identified as ‘My Garden’ and ‘Barmouth’. A little more interesting is security minister Tom Tugendhat’s choice of a 1905 print entitled ‘Henry III renewing the Magna Carta in 1253’.

Alex Chalk, however, breaks the mould. The lord chancellor’s office is decorated with a portrait of Spencer Perceval, who, as every serious pub quiz contender knows, is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated. The discovery sends Steerpike into a reverie about Westminster conspiracies - 'might it have been placed there as a cautionary tale to a rising Tory star?'. 

Obiter has a simpler explanation. Perceval KC, shot in the lobby of the House of Commons by the kind of embittered campaigner who would nowadays spend his time cluttering up the internet, boasts another first in his career. He is the only former solicitor general to reach the office of prime minister. Possibly Chalk, who occupied the office from 2021 to 2022, is not unaware of the precedent.