The home secretary’s gratis tickets to No Time to Die’s premiere were apparently ‘connected to executive functions’ because it’s a spy film. But what about ministers who run boring departments?
When the home secretary, Priti Patel, arrived at the premiere of No Time to Die last September, you could be forgiven for wondering what on earth she was doing there. Was she secretly friends with Daniel Craig? Is she such a 007 obsessive that she has a massive portrait of Timothy Dalton tattooed across her back? Had the producers invited her along simply to gather ideas about the next Bond villain?
The answer, it turns out, is far less exciting. This week, a standards committee hearing learned that Patel attended the premiere as a guest of the Jamaican tourist board, who paid for her tickets. And this is interesting, because on the surface there is no clear link between Priti Patel, the Jamaican tourist board and James Bond.
