Can Starmer Survive? Whispers and plotting as PM feels the heat

MPs have shared data showing Andy Burnham is Labour's only politician with a net positive public rating the equivalent of a rave review

- Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot

There has been a joke going around Labour MPs over the last week about three envelopes in Soviet Russia: "Whenever you run into trouble, open them in order," the instructions go. Envelope one says: "Blame your predecessor." So he does - and it works. The party officials are satisfied. A year later, problems arise again. He opens envelope two. It says: "Restructure the organisation." He does a big reshuffle, changes some titles, and again buys himself some time. Finally, another crisis comes. He opens envelope three. It says: "Prepare three envelopes."

The problem for Keir Starmer is that the MPs sharing the joke believe he has already opened two envelopes. It is becoming increasingly hard to find anybody in the Labour party who will argue that things are going anything other than disastrously for the government.

They fear that attempts to deal with the difficulties faced by the prime minister over the last year - many of them self-inflicted errors such as the winter fuel duty decision, the freebies row and the handling of welfare cuts - have instead unleashed more chaos.

The most recent example of this is the sacking of Peter Mandelson. When ministers warned his scandal-ridden history indicated he was more of a risk than an asset; even when the security services allegedly shared concerns, Starmer went ahead and appointed him.

Then, even though Mandelson had warned publicly that more "embarrassing" emails from him to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were about to be published, Starmer defended him at prime minister's questions.