Michael Fallon attempts to instil some military discipline on Cabinet

After weeks of Tory backstabbing, briefing and plotting at summer parties, Damian Green had to stage an intervention on the Marr show and warn his colleagues to lay off the ‘warm prosecco’. So, the Secretary of State will be relieved to know that one Cabinet minister has managed to resist the temptation to secretly brief hacks at a booze-fuelled bash.

At the Policy Exchange summer party last night, Michael Fallon cut to the chase and took to the mic to share his thoughts on his party’s current woes. The Defence Secretary said he and his colleagues could learn a lot from the military when it comes to self-discipline:

‘In this summer of warm Prosecco, I think we in the Cabinet would also do well to reflect on military virtues – loyalty, discipline and cohesion – that might better enable us to first to concentrate our fire on a dangerous enemy within reach of Downing Street, somebody who would lower our defences, scrap our deterrent, weaken our response.