Gavin Williamson, the Tory Secretary of Defence, was speaking to the House on the subject of Syria but Siri decided to be helpful, erm, as always and intervened in his statement.

A clearly embarrassed Williamson was caught on the hop, while Speaker John Bercow bellowed that it was a “very rum business”.

Williamson made a feeble joke about how it was unusual to be heckled by your own mobile device.

But perhaps he should take advice from fellow minister Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary.

A few weeks before, as we reported here, Hancock suggested schools should ban smartphones for having an impact on working memory and fluid intelligence but stopped short of suggesting the devices should be banned from parliamentary sessions.

You can find Siri making her/his/its presence in a BBC video clip from the Houses of Parliament, here.