Watch: Biden’s Carrie teasing

‘I was thrilled to meet your wife,’ Joe Biden told Boris Johnson during their first meeting at this week’s G7 summit. The PM’s eyes sunk. Where could this be going? ‘Yes, they’ve gone off to do something else,’ Boris replied, seemingly in the hope that Biden would too. 

The President was in a playful mood though. He murmured ‘I told the Prime Minister, “we have something in common”.’ A concerned look broke across Boris’s face. What could it be? ‘We both married way above our station’.

Vigorous nodding, vague murmuring, the desperation not to say something contradictory. For a man who is famously keen to avoid discussing his private life, this locker room chat had clearly embarrassed Johnson.