In a chamber set up for opposing political forces to face each other down, this was a rare moment of warmth.
Theresa May did not quite rest her head on old friend Damian Green’s shoulder, but beaming from ear to ear and with her head tipped towards him, it certainly looked like she might.
But just hours later those smiles were gone as the findings of a sleaze inquiry forced the Prime Minister to ask for her right-hand man’s resignation.
The Cabinet Office investigation said he had issued two ‘inaccurate and misleading’ statements, denying he knew about the discovery of pornography found on his computer in a botched police raid on his Commons office in 2008.
It is unclear whether Mrs May was told of the findings of the report prior to her PMQs appearance, or, if she had been, that it was going to lead to her deputy’s departure.
Theresa May shared a warm moment with Damian Green in the Commons chamber just hours before asking for his resignation for breaching ministerial
The moment between the pair came during a question by Labour MP Clive Efford, who recalled a Radio Times interview in which May said she enjoys stuffing her own goose at Christmas.
‘Can I suggest to her that in order to extract the maximum pleasure from the message of stuffing her goose, that she names it either Michael or Boris?’
Mrs May quipped back: ‘Can I say to him I think I’ll be having to resist the temptation to call the goose Jeremy.’
Green’s resignation on Wednesday was the culmination of a nine-year saga involving former Met Police chief Bob Quick, nicknamed ‘Bitter Bob’ by his former co-workers.
It was Mr Quick who ordered the raid on Mr Green’s office back in 2008 as part of an investigation into embarrassing leaks from the Home Office.
Mr Quick arrested Mr Green, then a shadow immigration minister, and held him for nine hours while his constituency office and home was searched.
The episode sparked a huge inquest at the Commons into whether parliamentary privilege should have protected the material held by an MP.
And just a year later Mr Quick quit as a policeman after being photographed heading into No10 with a security briefing about an undercover operation.
Mrs May was seen beside Green and she spoke at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, just hours before he was forced to resign
Green’s departure comes at the end of a nine-year feud with the Met Police which also ended the career of former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick
The raid became news again last month after a dossier of ‘sex pest MPs’ was published, prompting Tory activist Kate Maltby to come forward and accuse Green of sexual harassment.
An inquiry launched on November 1 found Miss Maltby’s claims were ‘plausible’, but said it was ‘not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness’ of his behaviour.
It was during the course of this inquiry that Mr Quick came forward with his allegations, backed up by former Scotland Yard detective Neil Lewis.
It was Mr Quick who came forward to say porn had been found on Green’s office computer during an unrelated raid in 2008
The discovery had no relevance to the police inquiry at the time, no relevance to the claims made by Miss Maltby, and none of the allegations related to Mr Green’s time as a minister.
But his failure to tell the truth about them broke the ministerial code, which requires office holders to be truthful at all times.
His departure robs the Prime Minister of her closest political ally and a key part of her Brexit ‘War Cabinet’ as negotiations stagger onward.
It also marks the third loss of a Cabinet minister in just two months, following the exits of Sir Michael Fallon and Priti Patel.
May and Green have known each other since the 1970s, when his then-girlfriend Alicia Collinson was Theresa’s tutorial partner.
After graduating from Oxford he worked as a financial journalist for the BBC and Channel 4 before moving into politics.
He won the Tory safe seat of Ashford in 1997, the same year May became an MP, and the pair have followed each other through the corridors of power ever since.
Green was promoted to the front bench under Cameron, despite having backed Davis for the leadership in 2005, and served as immigration minister and then policing minister at the Home Office, under May’s guidance.
In 2014 he was unexpectedly fired by Cameron but after May took the reigns of power he found himself promoted to first secretary – deputy in all but name.
But that rise was cut brutally short on Wednesday, as he was forced to resign.
Damian Green tonight was forced to quit as Theresa May’s deputy after he was found to have lied over claims porn was found n his computer
Mr Green is the third cabinet minister to be forced to quit in just six weeks after their careers have been hit by scandal. Sir Michael Fallon and Priti Patel resigned as defence secretary and international development secretary respectively
Theresa May’s response to the resignation letter from Mr Green, her closest friend in politics
Mrs May accepted his resignation and wrote: ‘I’m extremely sad to be writing this letter, we have been friends and colleagues throughout our whole political lives