“Bunker mentality” is a cliché, but no other phrase quite captures the paranoia, suspicion and fear which clings around a prime minister who is on their way out. There is widespread uncertainty, delusion and panic. Today, Starmer and his crew are in this mindset. There is always a crew, people who are known only to specialists and insiders, whose names are largely obscure to the wider public, yet who wield disproportionate influence. The crew, in many cases, are even more determined than the leader to tough things out and maintain their own positions. They know that, with a change of regime, their influence and status will be at an end. I sat in cabinet under two Prime Ministers – Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss – whose leaderships unravelled in different circumstances. Though the details are quite different, there are obvious similarities in the demise of each leader. The situation in which Starmer finds himself is similar to the fate of the leader he openly despised, Boris Johnson. In both cases, frontbenchers resigned; backbenchers very publicly expressed their discontent. A large proportion of the Labour party now say they want Starmer gone, just as........

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