Patrick Maguire

He has bottled the opportunities to do that a couple of times before, once last year, once in February.

And if he's going to do it, he's going to have to do it now.

And there are lots of very wound-up people around West Street who are telling him, this is your final chance.

And if the speech goes down badly...

which, by the way, I expect, I'm 99% sure it will go down very badly.

There'll be a huge clamour among ministers, several of whom on the junior ranks are thinking of resigning in protest, for someone to lead them.

And I think the only person likely to lead them is West Street England.

Let's see.

Support is probably an overstatement.

I think it's sort of a more accurate phrase might be keep him under house arrest for a period.

Just, you know, he basically exists as sort of like a human convenience for these people now.

It's sort of, you know, you can stay as prime minister until such a time as Andy Burnham can come.

So it's not a case of supporting Keir Starmer.

It's more saying this guy is finished, but he can't go yet.

You know, name us a timetable and make sure that timetable gives Andy Burnham enough time to get a seat.

So basically nobody is saying

Keir Starmer is the man to lead Labour into the next election, apart from Keir Starmer.

Well, where do we begin with such a question with so many answers?

Look, I think there is now a consensus in the cabinet, and this was obvious from the start, that for a prime minister who was not particularly popular to start with, who was elected because of mass revulsion towards the Tories,

to open his account with the British public by doing two things.