Maitlis

And you're right.

This is the middle of a political dogfight.

And in the middle of a political dogfight, you don't normally put up a civil servant to be part of that.

They should be apart from the fray.

Well, let's speak now to Sam Coates from Sky News, who joins us in the studio.

And it's great to have you here, Sam.

Look, you were the person who was on pool duty last week where you get to ask the questions of the prime minister.

And it's made available to all broadcasters immediately afterwards.

And you did put this question to him, which seemed to get to the nub of it.

Do you find him a slightly unknowable character in the sense that there have been other prime ministers who get a very strong sense of what their personality is and what kind of makes them laugh or whether they're gossipy or what?

And I get the impression from people who serve with him,

that he keeps himself to himself.

He doesn't speak to anyone very much.

He reads a lot of papers, but doesn't engage.

from the Johnson years and when Johnson was eventually felled you know he talked about that phrase about when the herd starts to move it becomes sort of unstoppable and irresistible isn't the problem we've got at the moment is the herd is sort of like the wildebeest on the Mara River waiting for the migration and they're standing there and they can't decide who they want to follow to cross the river and so although the situation has deteriorated for Starmer and the past week has been bloody awful

They still haven't resolved who they want to follow across the river.

And therefore, probably for the moment, Starmer is safe.

coup happened, the cost of borrowing was next to nothing.

We're now selling on the bond market something like 5% or whatever.

It's hugely expensive.