Is Jill Biden calling the Nato leadership shots?

Ben Wallace has confirmed the worst-kept secret in Westminster: he’s the likely UK candidate for the Secretary General of Nato. Speaking in Berlin on Wednesday he told reporters: ‘I’ve always said it would be a good job. That’s a job I’d like.’ It’s a position that falls vacant in October and Wallace has a good claim, having been defence secretary for nearly four years, one of the few to emerge with credit from the Kabul evacuation, and has won plaudits for fighting the Whitehall machine to equip Ukraine before Putin’s invasion last year.

Mr S learns however that a surprising obstacle is standing in his way: the First Lady of the United States. Jill Biden, wife of President Joe, wants a woman in the role. And she thinks a senior female figure from one of the Baltic states, which believe that if Ukraine falls they will be at war next, would fit the bill.