Sir Jeremy ‘the Master’ Heywood

Mr Steerpike is back in print in today’s Spectator. Here’s a taste of what to expect:

‘Hats off to Sir Jeremy Heywood. The Cabinet Secretary’s bid to delete himself from everyone’s Christmas card list is proving a great success. Ministers were not amused by Sue Cameron’s Telegraph column hailing Sir Jeremy as ‘the only person trying to impose some order on the chaos’. She described him as the PM’s de facto political enforcer and she gushed lovingly about his capacity to ‘excite the frisson of fear’ in Downing Street. In response, the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn tweeted that Sir Jeremy had become the ‘unelected epicentre of power’.

One disgruntled Downing Street staffer whispered to me, ‘What next? An eight-page spread in Hello! magazine inviting us to “step inside” Sir Jeremy’s beautifully appointed mansion?’ Another source tells me the dark knight’s ultimate aim is to be acknowledged as ‘the Master’ of No. 10.