Pippa Crerar

So as well as showing the Prime Minister's lack of judgment,

I think in both appointing Peter Mandelson without all the information available to him and in sacking Oliver Robbins, again, without all the information available to him, Keir Starmer comes across as somebody who doesn't have control of the processes and the grasp on the detail that you might expect, not just any prime minister, but this one in particular, who came in on a promise of being somebody that was not only going to restore stability to British government, but also order.

That was his big selling point, wasn't it?

And so he's failed on that front.

Now, what's interesting is that unless in the next few days when we see those documents, once the Intelligence and Security Committee gets their hands on them, and then ultimately they come back to government and release to the public, unless there's any sort of more revelations that suggest that the Prime Minister was lying and therefore he has to go, and there isn't, I should say, currently any indication that that's going to be the case, it comes down to his MPs.

And the conversations I've had with MPs and the team here at Westminster for us at The Guardian have had with MPs over the last few days.

is that, yes, this is a terrible moment for the Prime Minister.

Yes, this is incredibly damaging for the Prime Minister and his reputation.

But actually, as far as they're concerned, it's over for Keir Starmer anyway.

And whether that happens after the May elections, I think that's unlikely because they don't seem to be able to settle on who would take over from him.

Or whether that happens further down the line when we're closer to the next general election, we don't yet know.

But as far as MPs are concerned, it's very much a matter of when, not if.

And this doesn't make any difference to that.