Lib Dem leadership hopeful Ed Davey has revealed he turned down the chance to be a spy – because he wanted to be Paddy Ashdown’s economic adviser instead. 

Yes, really.

“As a younger man, I almost served our country in a different way,” the Kingston and Surbiton MP told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme on Thursday. 

“MI6 tried to recruit me to be a spy overseas but I’d just been appointed to be the economic adviser to Paddy Ashdown, so I never became 00-Davey.” 

Cue Derbyshire – representing all of us – cutting in to simply say “no”.  

Asked why he would give up the chance to play a real-life James Bond in order to serve the long-standing Lib Dem leader, Davey said: “Working for Paddy was pretty exciting… You never knew what he was going to do next.” 

It didn’t take long for the reactions to start rolling in… 

Davey’s revelation about his potential career comes amid a race between him and Jo Swinson to replace Vince Cable – who is set to step down in July – as leader of the Lib Dems. 

However, the long-standing MP found himself in hot water this week after writing about his plan to “decapitate” Boris Johnson. 

Writing in The Times on Tuesday, Davey called for a Remain alliance “to decapitate that blond head in Uxbridge and South Ruislip if Johnson calls a snap election to deliver Brexit. 

He later apologised for his “careless use of language”, saying it was “meant in electoral sense and in no way literally”. 

“Whilst we should be robust in our opposition, we do have to carefully consider impact of our words and I failed to do that.”