The once-influential Lopez lost his job as Brooklyn Democratic party boss and was stripped of his Assembly leadership role last year after the allegations emerged.

WSJ: DA: NY lawmaker conduct 'alarming' not criminal

Mr Davies, one of the more independent-minded PPSes, believes that on a number of issues, from the referendum on the Welsh assembly's powers to the Silk commission on the future of devolution, his boss has got it right.

BBC: MPs and "armchair reshufflers" ponder cabinet changes