I have never seen anger like this on the Labour benches in private and in public. This is the kind of territory where things can move very fast.

— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) February 4, 2026

In one of those amusing ironies I have spent the afternoon participating in a seminar about ethics & probity and my answer to every situation was ‘What would Lord Mandelson do in this situation and do the exact opposite’.

A usually successful rule on political betting is betting on something not happening but I think we are at the end of the days for the Starmer premiership, and Starmer’s explanation reminded me of the Chris Pincher scandal which ended Boris Johnson premiership. The only thing that might save him is that his successor might want Starmer to take the blame for May’s election defeats then oust him then.

As I noted last week it appears the value might be with Angela Rayner whose political career was in ashes last autumn but now she’s the favourite to succeed Starmer.

TSE