The justice secretary copped some stick for – allegedly – nodding off during chancellor George Osborne’s budget speech last week.

But while Ed Miliband accused the lord chancellor of catching 40 winks, and Ladbrokes revealed it had paid out a four-figure sum to a customer who had presciently bet that Clarke would doze off, the minister himself was not admitting to anything.

Clarke’s spokesman reportedly told press, ‘of course he didn’t fall asleep’, while the man himself provided further enlightenment as to precise events in the Guardian.

Clarke told the broadsheet: ‘It wasn't anything to do with George's speech. It was early on. I sat there, snuggled in alongside my colleagues, and I was conscious of nodding for a moment.

'I wasn't conscious of going to sleep, actually. I don’t want to cause a dispute with Ladbrokes, but my head was dropping and – [I was] wide awake by the end of the speech.

'I assure you it wasn’t lack of interest... But I had had a bad night the night before.’

Could the minister’s sleep problems indicate a pang of conscience over legal aid cuts?

Sadly not. ‘I'm having gout in my wrist and the blasted thing kept me awake the night before. So I was generally short of sleep,’ he said.