Hammond said that the NAO was wrong to state that the overspend could have paid for an eighth Astute submarine, but admitted the MoD still had much to do to give taxpayers value for money.

A recent Treasury research paper admitted that there was no fail-safe method to estimate the correct value of a currency.

“But beauty is of higher value than all this, ” said the apple-tree branch; “only the chosen ones can be admitted intothe realms of the beautiful.