Downing Street insisted that the Blairs were paying their way, while Mrs Gibb, a bisexual Druid priestess from Northern Ireland, undermined their defence by insisting that no money was changing hands but that Robin and herself were allowed to look in the window. “It’s a friendly arrangement,” she told one newspaper.

The mystery intensified further as Downing Street hinted that Mrs Gibb didn’t know what she was talking about, and that a “private commercial agreement” had in fact been made with Mr Gibb’s manager, John Campbell, who said, “ the Gibbs will pay for the privilege of watching”.