It was false moustaches and trenchcoats all round last night as MI5 director-general Sir Jonathan Evans held a retirement reception at the organisation’s Westminster HQ. Those spotted discreetly coming and going included the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Attorney General, the Treasury Solicitor, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
The few women present, who included Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and one or two mysterious Pussy Galore lookalikes, were all upstaged by Home Secretary Theresa May. She sported kitten heels in her signature leopardskin with diamanté-studded heels.
May pointed out that in her first week in her current job the BBC broadcast an episode of Spooks in which MI5’s DG murdered the Home Secretary. She praised Sir Jonathan, a former classicist, by quoting in Latin part of the tribute to Agricola paid by Tacitus. “Essentially it means he’s a jolly good egg,” whispered a greybeard.
Sir Jonathan confided in friends that he was “expecting soon to look five years younger”.
