Tell us what Labour really stands for, prime minister

Sir Keir Starmer is hardly the first prime minister to want to make sure they are surrounded by a team at No 10 that is effective; usually, and with little friction, the civil service ensures that that is indeed the case.

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Many an incoming premier has, in due course, replaced their closest civil servants with people they know and trust better.

The wiring of the Downing Street and Cabinet Office machine is tangled and confusing to any novice, but - apart from the convulsions caused during the reign of Boris Johnson and his adviser Dominic Cummings - any changes to it can usually be accommodated. So it is with the latest change, the departure of Sir Keir's principal private secretary, Nin Pandit, who had only been in post for 10 months.

This is one of the most powerful and sensitive roles in the home civil service - more important than many ministers - and with such close contact with the prime minister and other senior colleagues, three fundamentals, at least, are essential: a rapport with the prime minister, an amicable relationship with senior political advisers, and the ability to get things done in Whitehall. When some or all of those elements are missing, things can go wrong.

There is nothing sinister as such in the departure of Ms Pandit, and No 10 is keen to stress that she retains the prime minister's trust and confidence. Other, anonymous sources say she “wasn't effective”, which feels unkind. But this is the third such departure since Sir Keir became prime minister.