No contest...PM rigs rules for his deputy

SIR KEIR Starmer is a control freak who can’t exercise control over his divided party, an authoritarian who has lost his authority. In his clumsy hands, attempted stitch-ups regularly unravel.

- 

That is certainly the case in the farce of Labour's current Deputy Leadership contest, triggered by the resignation of property enthusiast Angela Rayner, whose much vaunted authenticity could not match her epic hypocrisy.

As she left office in a flood of tears and tax demands, Sir Keir was concerned that the battle for her succession would not only be a gigantic distraction for his beleaguered Government but could also serve as a focus for internal discontent against his own leadership.

So he tried to manipulate the process by setting the threshold for nominations extremely high and drastically curtailing the timetable.