A Tory Housing Minister recommended people pick up a bottle of £170 Champagne to see off the Covid blues. Labour branded Christopher Pincher as "truly out of touch" after he suggested people should see off a "rotten" 2020 with a toast of eye-wateringly expensive bubbly while more than half a million Brits live with rent arrears or in temporary accommodation.
In a column for the magazine The Critic, Mr Pincher, who is Minister of State for Housing, told readers not to buy Tory favourite Dom Perignon, in favour of the "cheaper (though not by much)" Krug Grand Cru Cuvée which at £170 he describes as tasting like a "tart satsuma" with a "light, tight, nutty effervescence".