New peer Howard Leigh, who will be introduced to the House of Lords by Lords Fink and Feldman in October, has chosen a famous saying from Hillel to feature on his coat of arms, “If not now when?”.

When he went to see Robert Noel, Herald at the College of Arms, he was mightily impressed when the Herald immediately quoted the verse back in Hebrew. It turns out that Mr Noel was the only non-Jewish student in his year who read Hebrew at Oxford.