How a cunning plan to bolster the prime minister backfired spectacularly

Far from steadying the ship, Downing Street's antics have amplified the turmoil and emboldened those eyeing the leadership

- Andrew Rawnsley

When schemes to supplant him swirled around Harold Wilson in the late 1960s, that Labour prime minister put down the plotters in a speech to a rally in London: "I know what is going on. I am going on." This riposte had a feline elegance that was starkly absent from the risibly crude and self-destructive attempts of Sir Keir Starmer's under-strappers to shore up his position.

By giving briefings to journalists that their man would fight any challenge to his leadership, they stupidly confirmed that an attempt to topple him is what keeps them awake at night. By saying that he couldn't be replaced because it would "destabilise" international relationships, they sounded horribly like the apologists for Boris Johnson who argued that he couldn't be removed because of the war in Ukraine. By attempting to "kneecap" Wes Streeting by suggesting the health secretary was planning an imminent coup, they gave him the opportunity to give a masterclass in his superior communication skills when faced with a tricky situation. It was humorously deft to suggest the poisonous whisperers had spent too much time watching The Celebrity Traitors and call it "the most unjustified attack against the Faithfuls".