Laura Kuenssberg

But I think here is the driving thing.

Keir Starmer believed that he could beat Andy Burnham, it seems to me, until really quite recently.

Most people in the Labour Party think that's nuts.

But we don't know because there might never be a contest.

There could have been a contest.

We're in the parallel world.

Who knows?

But most people in the Labour Party think that it's nuts, as one government source said to me.

And therefore, what you've seen is previously loyal ministers who have been worried, in the words of one cabinet source, about him humiliating himself.

And that's the way it was expressed to me by one cabinet sources.

Look, we wouldn't want the prime minister to humiliate himself by running in a contest and being beaten and potentially being beaten very badly.

Now, look, some people in the Star Wars team say, look, actually, most of the members think he should stay.

You know, they quote different bits of polling at you.

They'll say, oh, we're only six points behind in the polls.

But the consensus view in the Labour Party is that Starmer would not be Andy Burnham and therefore what we've seen since Thursday night, and I think that sped up in the second half of yesterday, is people essentially saying, don't put yourself through it.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

That's right.

And if Starmer actually decides that he will fight it, which is still possible, nothing is certain.