It had been a relatively sedate evening; the Devon and Cornwall police chief and a handful of local Tory councillors discussed the forthcoming elections over salmon and a few bottles of wine.

But Alison Hernandez’s cosy housewarming party ended on a rather different note, with three complaints made to her own force when an almighty late night row erupted with fellow residents over parking spaces.

The 45-year-old Police and Crime Commissioner was celebrating moving into the flat in Torquay with her boyfriend, Lucius Gray, 38, an aspiring Tory councillor who was once homeless.

But the fracas resulted in their new neighbours branding Mr Gray “abusive, obnoxious, rude and threatening” whilst Ms Hernandez’s later attempts to placate them with flowers and prosecco were roundly dismissed as “political damage limitation.”

The row was prompted by an innocent mistake. When guest David Thomas, 55, leader of the Conservatives on Torbay Council, arrived with his wife, he called Ms Hernandez and asked where he should park his silver Jaguar.

She told him to park immediately behind her vehicle, which he duly did.