Patrick Maguire

Does he believe in anything?

And voters have sniffed that out.

And I'd say the last of the loyalists in his cabinet and on the back benches

are looking at the electoral results, looking at the Prime Minister and thinking, well, look, it wasn't great when the Tories cycled three leaders, but we have no other option.

Yeah, well, that was put to me by one of the many former advisers to Keir Starmer in the early hours of Saturday after he'd just given a pretty remarkable interview to the Observer newspaper in which he said he intended to serve 10 years as prime minister.

And about one in the morning, I got a text from an adviser

He was glad to be at a number 10 and said he's in the Willy Wonka phase.

His premiership, I said, what do you mean?

He said he lives in a world of pure imagination.

And that's what people felt like when they read that.

You know, what planet is this guy on if he thinks he's doing another eight years as prime minister?

Look, it's the accumulation and the local elections and the straw that broke the camel's back.

I mean, to say the local elections weren't quite as bad as we thought is like saying, well, I only lost three limbs in that accident rather than all four.

I mean, as one cabinet minister put it to me, the Labour Party lost everywhere to everyone, including in lots of parts of London, the Conservative Party.

I mean, it was unimaginably bad.

And several Labour MPs have compared it to a bereavement to me.

You know, you can be nursing a very sick relative for a long time and you can know the inevitable is coming, but once it happens, nothing prepares you for the psychological impact.

And that is the experience lots of Labour people have had.

You know, there are Labour councils in the North and Midlands, proud old industrial towns that have been Labour for nearly a century.

You know, Labour is down to nine MSs in Wales, in the Welsh Parliament.