EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Inside King Charles' meeting with Angela Rayner at Dumfries House

As we predicted last month, Angela Rayner – who rankled King Charles with her decision to drop the beauty requirement for new-build homes, saying, 'Beautiful? Beautiful means nothing really' – met HM at Dumfries House at the weekend. His meeting with Ms Rayner was a first.

Monarchs usually only deal with their PMs rather than the lower ranks. Summoning her to Dumfries House in Ayrshire was no coincidence.

Apparently he deployed his charm to great effect, leaving Rayner in no doubt about beauty as he showed her around the 18th century Chippendale-laden Palladian mansion he saved for the nation.

But was the King too subtle for a woman more used to wielding sledgehammers to aesthetic discussions about beautiful buildings?

King's comments on Rayner's trousers As the King greeted Ms Rayner, who was wearing her bright green voluminous trews, he appeared taken aback. 'Golly, what amazing trousers!' he uttered. At least HM didn't ask if Lord Alli bought the eye-searing breeches.

Rayner struggling to get a mansion Angela Rayner may have been irked by being at Dumfries House, one of seven places where the King keeps pyjamas.

The Deputy PM is currently struggling to get the PM to allocate to her one of the Government's grace-and-favour mansions.

She could ask Foreign Secretary David Lammy if he could help out. He has a country pile and a house in Westminster's exclusive Carlton Gardens. When Robin Cook left the FO in 2001 he wanted to keep Carlton Gardens, but his successor Jack Straw gave him a 'granny flat' upstairs. It might still be available.

Sykes on snobbery at literary festival Scribbler Plum Sykes, spouts about snobbery at Cliveden Literary Festival, revealing a tantalising snippet about the Salisburys – one of the grandest families in the land. 'I had this posh man to stay a few years ago, James Cecil.

His family own Hatfield House', she explained. 'And we were just chatting and he said, "The thing about the Royal Family is that they are so middle-class, aren't they?"'

Jay's front page message to girlfriend Mourning Peter Jay, ex-Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams recalls how he once pulled a story from the magazine about his stint at The Times, when Jay boasted to a girlfriend over lunch that the main leader in the newspaper the following day would spell out her name in the first letter of each line.

'It duly appeared', recalls Ingrams, 'but just before we went to press with the story, a friend of his warned that if we ran it he would get the sack. We didn't run it.'

Former Blair minister disapproves of Starmer's free trousers Former Blair minister Denis MacShane disapproves of Keir Starmer's free trousers, blaming amateur advisers for the PR train crash.

'You have to look smart in government,' he says. 'So once I went down to Primark to see what they had. I put my receipts in to the Treasury and they told me to p*** off.'