“I have the great pleasure in this job of travelling round the world and hearing how other people talk about what it means to be English, what we stand for, and I think we need to have that same pride too. I certainly do.

“When you’re in Ukraine and you hear Ukrainians talk about our country and what it means to them, that’s the same pride everyone should have.

“So that’s why I’ve brought you these lovely St George’s Day cakes, and wearing a tie. We’re in full celebration mode. And it’s Shakespeare’s birthday.

“Oddly on Saturday night my daughter and I were watching Pointless and they had a brilliant Shakespeare question- my daughter loves Shakespeare. Then the final thing, the guy chose UK Parliamentary constituencies as his specialist subject, and I was like ‘here we go’.”