Lawyers will rarely use one word when eight sheets of A4 will do, so Obiter was somewhat surprised with the response from former attorney general Michael Ellis QC MP to a written question in parliament this week.

Michael Ellis QC MP

Ellis replied with admirable succinctness to a written question

Source: Parliament

The current paymaster general, junior Cabinet Office minister and part-time flak-catcher for the prime minister, replied with admirable succinctness to a query from the Lib Dems’ Sarah Olney about numerous ‘work events’ at Downing Street. Had there been a cost to the public purse ‘from expenditure on alcohol, food, suitcases and a fridge at gatherings?’, Olney asked.

Ellis pithily replied: ‘No.’

Obiter wonders if Ellis, who was wheeled out before furious MPs to take the slings and arrows for Boris Johnson last month, has simply had enough.

Topics