‘I have the recording.’

He stares at the picture of Kenilworth.

‘But obviously I am more interested in your tax plans . . .’

‘We haven’t made any announcements.’ He snaps a Twiglet in half and crumbles it into splinters and dust.

‘Todd can’t leave himself vulnerable on this.’

‘Correct.’

‘So he’ll say he’s not putting up the basic rate. Right?’

‘I am not confirming that.’ But he’s also not denying it.

‘If I run that, will I look stupid?’

Cannon looks at his empty glass. Even with coke and champagne in his system, spilling party secrets is not second nature. He sighs.

‘You won’t look stupid.’

And there’s the story. BASIC RATE WON’T RISE UNDER LABOUR GOVERNMENT. Not too shabby. Admittedly I prefer finding out when a cabinet minister has fiddled his taxes, or a civil servant has been entertained in a lap-dancing club by a private-sector contractor. But this is real news. Probably the splash.

I knock back the rest of the fizz, and my hand’s already halfway in the air to attract the attention of the young waiter whose manner suggests she is doing me a favour by taking an order. But I am also thinking I should get to the office to write this up.

Cannon is folding his copy of the Mail. That story really got to Todd. He’ll want to make a big noise, something that’ll force the Globe and the Mail to re-evaluate their assumption that he’s a socialist wolf in a Hugo Boss suit.

I turn to Cannon. ‘What about the top rate of tax?’

He lifts his hollow eyes. ‘What about the top rate?’

‘What will Todd say about that?’

‘You’re a piece of work. You’ve got a story with the basic rate.’

A Labour party promising that taxes won’t go up for nurses and teachers is important, but neither brave or all that surprising. But a pledge not to go after the incomes of bankers and stockbrokers? That would be sensational. It would be Todd sticking two fingers up to those Labour members and trade unionists for whom it is a moral duty to at least put the rich on warning that Labour is out to get them.

‘In terms of symbolism, tax on higher incomes, that’s more important for Labour. Todd is desperate to have business on side so he’ll promise not to increase the top rate. Now I think of it, it’s obvious.’

Cannon says nothing.

‘You’ve gone quiet,’ I say. ‘Let’s be clear, Tony, if you tell me now that it’s not true, I won’t run it.’

‘I am not saying anything.’

‘So you’re not denying it?’

He stays silent.