It wasn’t just the way Bob Diamond kept using her first name – Andrea – that was so cringe-making, but that the American made such a hash of the vowels, drawling them out in a sort of And-REEE-a. It was all very, well, un-British.

But Diamond's over-familiarity, and Andrea Leadsom's forensic interrogation of the ex-Barclays boss ensured that the Conservative politician shot to public attention. Indeed, the Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire was so merciless with her probing of Diamond at last year's Treasury Select Committee into the Libor scandal that even the hard-core political press said they were reminded of a young Maggie Thatcher.