Jon Sopel joins the Garrick Club

Tough times for the Garrick Club, after the embarrassing leak of its membership list to the Guardian. Following the newspaper’s front-page splash on Tuesday, multiple senior Establishment figures quit the all-male club. They included MI6 boss Sir Richard Moore, Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, and Sir Robert Chote, the former head of the Office for Budget Responsibility. Other resignations at the £1,000-a-year West End haunt are expected to be in the offing too.

But never fear: one’s man loss is another man’s gain. And the man filling the space occupied by recent departees is none other than former BBC newsman Jon Sopel. He has just joined the 193-year-old club after ‘a lengthy wait’, according to today’s Mail on Sunday. The paper suggests that Sopel’s election might explain why his News Agent podcast – usually so keen to cover anything obsessing right-on opinion – is yet to discuss the Garrick Club fall-out.