Welcome to the jungle: a guide to the priapic predators of Westminster

Shortly after I began my working life, on the edge of the Westminster jungle, I landed a job with a ‘big beast’; an alpha male, in very much the same mould as Harvey Weinstein or Dominique Strauss-Kahn: silver-haired, heavy-set, charismatic. For a few months, he ignored me as I busied away researching stats. Then, during what should have been a routine working lunch, the searchlight of his wandering eye settled on me and out of the blue he declared passionate love: ‘Say you love me too. I just can’t live without you.’ This was both flattering and confusing. Why now? Why me? This famous man had a devoted wife and a small daughter and at the time that shocked me too. Well, I was young.

In the months that followed, I grew up. I learnt quickly that in the seamy world of British politics — just as much here as across the Channel or the Atlantic — the terms of engagement between powerful men and young women are a far cry from those we’re taught at school.