Lewis Goodall

at 9.30, I said, I can just see a scenario where he resigns, but he doesn't challenge.

And it sounded ridiculous, as I was saying, why would you resign to not challenge?

But I do think that Wes has probably realised that he has ended up in a situation where, as discussed,

He has seen others parachute out the plane ahead of him, i.e.

resign.

And he hasn't yet done that, even though they were his close allies.

He's had his conversation with the prime minister, a very short one, we know, where presumably he took some of this to Keir and said, I don't think you're the man to lead us into the next election or to lead us any further.

And simultaneously, he

has not found the numbers to actually give him the heft he needs, the 81 he needs, to go off and launch his own leadership challenge.

And there was talk last night around Westminster, to be frank, that Wes's people were calling up people who were not necessarily in the Wes Streeting camp,

and saying, would you like to come on board?

And at that point, it started to become a little bit clearer to some of us that he was struggling, I think, struggling to find the numbers.

And so here we have this kind of ridiculous stasis in some places, which is, yes, he's

left his job he's not going for it he's not ruling out that if somebody else went in ahead of Keir you know to challenge Keir he would also stand but also leaving himself room presumably to be part of what an eventual Burnham team right well I you don't know I mean it's kind of the old kind of political slogan that he who wields the knife never wears the crown not true I mean it's

Honestly, the one person who seems to have enjoyed this week, bizarrely, is Keir Starmer.

I was looking at him during the King's speech yesterday, in the Commons, cracking out the jokes, taking on Kemi Badenoch, and he seemed at his most robust for absolutely weeks.

And there is something funny about this, which is that maybe he's saying, come on,

If you want to take me on, come on.

And no one is.

So far, no one is.