Could the King of the North make a better fist of No 10?

It may be that his hold on power is sustained only by the absence of a credible candidate with a workable and popular alternative programme.

- JOHN RENTOUL

But as Janan Ganesh of the Financial Times observed on Wednesday, it may be that things can only get worse for Labour. “The people who lead the government are unfit and their internal critics are worse,” he wrote. “As the latter are gaining strength, it follows that Britain will be in ever less capable hands until 2029.”

There are as many as five alleged “plots” that have Starmer in their sights. There is Streeting, accused of manoeuvring by No 10 sources. There is Shabana Mahmood, whose leadership and courage are compared favourably to the prime minister’s. There is the spectre of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, whose reemergence last weekend is anything but helpful for the prime minister.

There is whoever else the “soft left” put forward, with The Times reporting this week that MPs in the Tribune Group have met to consider the worth of Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, and Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary.

And then there is Andy Burnham. On Wednesday’s BBC Two