As Rayner falls on her sword, Starmer will also take a hit

The handwritten letter was a decent touch. The prime minister has the spiky handwriting of someone who has spent his life on a keyboard, which made the gesture of using an actual pen for his letter to

- JOHN RENTOUL, CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR

The handwritten letter was a decent touch. The prime minister has the spiky handwriting of someone who has spent his life on a keyboard, which made the gesture of using an actual pen for his letter to Angela Rayner accepting her triple resignation all the more meaningful.

“You have been a trusted colleague and a true friend for many years,” Sir Keir Starmer wrote, glossing over that time he tried to demote her for daring to plot against him, only for her to emerge with more titles than the local library. But Starmer’s distress was authentic, in that he has lost someone he has learned to value, and who was an important and complementary part of his government. He needed someone with her instinctive political skills, for example, to defuse the Labour MPs’ rebellion over disability benefits.