Traditionally, new prime ministers are welcomed to No. 10 by a line-up of applauding staff. But it’s not always an entirely joyful moment. When Tony Blair arrived in 1997, he saw that one of the secretaries was in tears, and asked her if she was OK. “Well, Mr Blair, you are welcome,” she said, “but I did so like that nice Mr Major.” According to journalist Andrew Rawnsley, Blair said he was sorry – to which the secretary replied: “You’re not sorry at all, you meant this to happen.” In a memoir, Blair wrote that by the end of the meet and greet, he felt “a right heel, coming in and creating all this distress. Needless to say, I got over it.”
There is a theory, known as Leo’s Law,…
