In an age when popular anger is directed at the rise of ‘the political class' – a seemingly-narrow, self-obsessed cadre of power-mongers, gliding effortlessly from studying PPE-style degrees at Oxbridge universities to safe seats and departments of state – special advisers are obvious whipping boys.

‘Spads', as they are known in the Westminster bubble, rose to real prominence during the New Labour years, serving as lightening rods for the increasingly-fractious relationship between the press and the Government.