Starmer's shambles opens the door to Farage as future PM

The word of the week was “shambles”. Indeed, the verdict was so unanimous that we are duty bound to consider the contrarian case in Keir Starmer's defence.

- JOHN RENTOUL

The briefing on the prime minister's behalf against Wes Streeting, the health secretary, plainly went too far, giving the impression of a government at war with itself. But it achieved part of its aim, which was to let Labour MPs know that Starmer would not go quietly if - as some of them imagined - a group of cabinet ministers told him privately that the game was up.

It reminded Labour MPs that removing a sitting prime minister who doesn't want to go is difficult. It is harder to remove a Labour prime minister than it used to be to remove a Conservative one, because Labour's rules require 81 MPs - 20 per cent of the parliamentary party - to declare publicly that they support an alternative candidate. Under the Tory rules, the first stage of the procedure was triggered by 15 per cent of MPs privately demanding a vote of no confidence - although that has now been raised to 33 per cent.

The briefing by No 10 also reminded the Labour Party that changing prime minister would unsettle the markets - although the Budget U-turn two days later reminded everyone that keeping the same prime minister could also unsettle the markets.

But the briefing also had the effect of forcing leadership plotters to face other awkward facts. One is that Labour members cannot be relied on to choose a prime minister who would be an improvement on Starmer. Streeting may be more popular with the people who have the deciding vote in Labour leadership elections at the end of this week than he was at the beginning, but he is still a Blairite.