Chris Mason

There was a sprinkling of MPs.

There were no cabinet ministers.

There was Anna Turley, who's the Labour Party chair.

There was Lucy Powell, who's the elected deputy leader of the Labour Party.

You might recall she was sacked from a job in government and then ran for the deputy leadership after Angela Rayner had left.

the job, and then run that job.

I managed to grab a quick word with her.

But then after that, it was all about what happens next.

And the immediate thought afterwards was what does Catherine West say?

This is the former minister who...

who spoke to our colleague Ben Wright on the PM programme on Radio 4 on Saturday afternoon and kind of out of nowhere said she was willing to run as a stalking horse candidate, as a candidate seeking the support of those who wanted to try and trigger a leadership contest.

And she would see what she made of the speech and then she'd offer her reaction to it.

And we got a statement at lunchtime from her in which she reckoned that what the Prime Minister said

was too little too late.

But crucially, she said she was no longer running as a potential leadership candidate, but instead would privately gather the views of Labour MPs, particularly those who might want to see some sort of timetable into the autumn for a new prime minister.

And at that point, this was at lunchtime, it looked like

the pressure might just be easing on the prime minister.

Cause clearly that was a better outcome for him than the alternative looked like it was a better outcome for Andy Burnham, the mayor of greater Manchester, not currently an MP.

And so couldn't run in a contest where one to start very quickly.

Um, it looked like it was better news for him as well.