After David Lidington complained about ‘warm prosecco’ fuelling Tory leadership plotting, the Cabinet stepped things up a gear on Thursday as they made their way to 22 Old Queen Street for some chilled champagne at The Spectator summer party.
After a difficult few months which saw Theresa May lose her majority in Parliament, the Prime Minister found time to unwind at the annual bash. However, with David Davis – the man tipped as her successor – also in attendance (and on the look out for someone to fill his SpAd vacancy), party talk soon turned to the eventual leadership contest. Davis’s fellow leadership contenders Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd also made sure to show up. Happily for the Foreign Secretary, the back stabbing against him (detailed in this week’s cover story) was kept to precisely that and he was welcomed warmly by his colleagues.
Here are selection of photos (taken by Alan Davidson and Anne Schwarz) from the event:
Andrew Marr and Theresa May
David Davis and James Forsyth
Theresa May and Andrew Neil
Fraser Nelson and Boris Johnson
Amber Rudd
Rod Liddle
Laura Kuennssberg
Michael Heath
Ayesha Hazarika
John Whittingdale, Andrew Mitchell and Andrew Roberts
Fraser Nelson and Theresa May
Tristram Hunt
Jo Johnson and Andrew Adonis
Boris Johnson and Rachel Johnson
Flora Rose, Tim Smith and Katy Balls
Martin Vander Weyer and Colleen Graffy
Kay Burley
Emily Maitlis
Andrew Marr
Liz Truss
Emma Boon
Gareth Kime, David Starkey and David Butterfield
Petronella Wyatt
Taki
Cosmo Landesman
Stephen Pitt and Rebecca Mukasa
Douglas Murray
Lara Prendergast
Kemi Badenoch and Graham Brady
Carrie Symonds and Lucy Aitkens
Sam Leith and Daisy Dunn
Chris Hope, Harry de Quetteville, Ruth Porter and Mark Mason
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