Sunday breakfast started with David Lammy, the Prime Minister’s official deputy, having briefed that he had opposed the fateful appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US – a confirmation that piled the responsibility firmly on to Sir Keir Starmer.

It was a sign that for many senior figures, the limits of loyalty to Starmer have been exceeded as they look to salvage their own reputations and future options.

By the time Sunday lunch was over, Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s chief strategist, closest adviser and the architect of his entire premiership had announced that he was quitting.

This took place under a tsunami of pressure from outraged MPs over an autocratic culture in No 10 – and McSweeney’s role in pushing for the appointment of Peter Mandelson, the controversial Blairite doyen, to the UK’s most important foreign ambassadorial post.
McSweeney’s resignation statement was intended to draw the fire away from Keir on to a key adviser: “In public life, responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside.”

The real significance of the helter-skelter announcement is to confirm that Labour is moving closer to deciding whether to hang on to Starmer himself. The PM is a lonely figure in No 10 – many of those around him are re-hires from the Blair years, and while McSweeney was a protégé of Mandelson then, he represented a different........

© iNews