Sex and the shires: Plum Sykes reveals all

‘I looked at a picture of him today and thought: “Why are you wearing those expensive clothes, you twit?”’ Plum Sykes is in the Claridge’s ArtSpace Café, eating the avocado on toast and talking about Rishi Sunak. ‘He looks like he’s wearing handmade shoes, which is a real no-no – a real no-no! But he can’t stop himself.’

David Cameron would never be so gauche, says Plum. ‘In fact, I remember asking David about that and he said he’d never wear a custom-made suit on the campaign trail because it sends the wrong message.’ Plum quite likes Sunak ‘because he’s clever and sensible’. But she thought Cameron was ‘brilliant – Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton now, isn’t that the funniest thing?’

Plum insists she’s ‘not political at all’. As an aristocratic ‘it girl’ who became a contributing editor to World of Interiors and American Vogue, however, she knows a lot about expensive fashion, rich people and Chipping Norton.