Just when it seemed the press conference couldn’t get any more underwhelming, Nige introduced his new councillors

It’s getting to be quite a habit. Reform send out an invitation to attend a press conference with the promise of a “special announcement”. The media attend with high expectations only to be rewarded with a crushing sense of anticlimax. One special announcement turned out to be a 30-minute whinge from Nigel Farage about some local elections being cancelled. Another was the news that Andrea Jenkyns would be standing for mayor in Greater Lincolnshire. Not even Andrea’s friends give much of a toss about that.

Fair to say, then, that expectations were not high for Monday’s latest special announcement. But we travelled to the Royal Horseguards hotel in Westminster in hope. Maybe this time … A fatwa on Rupert Lowe. That would be news. Perhaps the hapless ex-Tory MP Jonathan Gullis had been let in out of the cold. Only a few weeks ago he was saying how hard it was for someone who had gone out of his way to make enemies to get a job. Could it be that Nige had taken pity on him and offered him the chance to return to parliament at the Runcorn byelection?