Trousergate MP Nicky Morgan pulls out of Have I Got News for You

But with Nicky Morgan embroiled in the so-called Trousergate affair, she probably decided discretion was the better part of valour.

The former cabinet minister at the centre of a spat over the Prime Minister’s £1,000 garments pulled out of filming for an episode of the satirical programme. She will no longer appear on the panel show today owing to “unforeseen circumstances”, an agent for the programme’s production company said.

The Conservative MP for Loughborough, who was sacked by Theresa May as education secretary when she took over Downing Street, criticised the PM’s decision to wear the costly trousers during a photo shoot for a newspaper.

Her expression of doubt over the PM’s decision to wear the Amanda Wakeley-designed “bitter chocolate” trousers forced Mrs May to deny she was out of touch and prompted a top aide to bar Ms Morgan from a No 10 meeting on Brexit.

Tory MPs backing the PM have pointed to the fact that Ms Morgan has a designer Mulberry handbag which retails for some £950. A spokeswoman for programme makers Hat Trick Productions said Mrs Morgan had been booked to appear on the show since September.

The programme does not take kindly to politicians pulling out. When Sheffield’s Roy Hattersley cancelled in 1993 he was replaced by a tub of lard.