End Game always loves an opportunity to interrogate the Care Quality Commission and we had a particularly nasty question waiting to lob in the direction of its chair at an improving patient care conference last month.

However, following his speech on the commission’s new inspection regime David Prior made a swift exit before questions could be taken from the floor.

The move clearly didn’t enamour Mr Prior to at least one other conference speaker.

Sheldon Stone, a consultant at Royal Free London Foundation Trust and hand hygiene expert, took to the podium after Mr Prior and delivered a damning verdict both on his speech and subsequent vanishing act. “I think it’s utterly reprehensible that David Prior has disappeared, I thought it was a very weak presentation,” he vented.

It wasn’t long before Dr Stone revealed his gripe with the CQC chair: “I don’t think that we should forget that he was CEO of the Conservative Party…As a Spurs supporter I would rather support Arsenal than support the Tories!”

Continuing the football theme, a textbook case of playing the man, not the ball?