Like many politicians, Michael Prescott read Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Oxford, but he says the Commons benches were never an ambition for himself. “You need too thick a hide, and the constitution of several ox.”

Instead, he became a lobby journalist on Fleet Street, first working for the The Mirror’s political editor Alistair Campbell before serving as chief political correspondent and political editor of The Sunday Times (from 1991-2001). One of his memorable scoops in his long career as a journalist was the revelation that the late Ann Widdecombe had described Michael Howard, the Tory home secretary, as a man with “something of the night” about him. 

“It is better to risk being the most overdressed person in the room than the scruffiest”

After a colourful political decade working for Rupert Murdoch, under various editors, he was approached by Colin Byrne to join Weber Shandwick as vice-chairman. There, he advised FTSE firms like Virgin Media, Balfour Beatty, British Nuclear Fuels, MasterCard, as well as universities and advising various HNWs/celebrities in “crisis management” mode. One of his more enjoyable wins, he reflects, was “unlocking a John Prescott (no relation) Whitehall blockage to get Ikea Edmonton built”.  

He also served for eight years as corporate affairs director for BT and is now Managing Director of Hanover Communications. Until last …