A chilly reception for the Ratner of politics

KEIR STARMER'S dinner last Thursday at Chequers with Labour backbenchers has already been dubbed "the last supper".

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Unfortunately for the PM, I suspect that there was rather more than one Judas around the table ready to betray him.

Desperate to cling to power following his mauling over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador in the Chamber the day before, Starmer hurriedly invited Labour MPs to join him for a dinner of chilli and apologies, and where he made a vain attempt to convince them he'd been lied to by Mandelson and not to get rid of him otherwise the Labour Party would collapse into factional infighting.

"Too little too late," said one MP, who up until that point had never even been spoken to by Starmer. Indeed, some suspected he hadn't even known their names beforehand. "Dead man walking," noted others, who had never forgiven him for taking the Winter Fuel Payment off 10 million pensioners.