People laugh at Sir Keir Starmer for failing to acknowledge that he has almost no hope of survival. This is unfair. Until you absolutely know you will resign, you must not give the slightest indication that you might. By doing so, you encompass your own destruction. ‘I shall fight on. I fight to win,’ said Margaret Thatcher. She announced her resignation the next day. Sir Keir is not nearly at that stage. His position is stronger than hers. There has been no Geoffrey Howe-style resignation followed by a denunciation of the Prime Minister in the Commons. Indeed, there has been no formal challenge to Starmer’s leadership so far, let alone a leadership vote like that which undermined Mrs T. Sir Keir loves ‘due process’ (his own adaptation – misuse even – of a term with legal meaning). In this case, he is right to cling to it, even though it probably will not save him. He owes it to his successors and the office itself to resist easy ejection. I have an additional suggestion for Sir Keir as he tries to hit back. Before last week’s elections, Nigel Farage kept saying: ‘Vote Reform and get Starmer out.’ Why, Starmer should ask his own rebels, do they want to do Farage’s bidding?

Sir Keir well knows that his opponents face formidable difficulties, none more so than Andy Burnham. There is no modern precedent for what the Mayor of Greater Manchester is trying to do. The nearest is the story of Sir Alec Douglas-Home. In 1963, following Harold Macmillan’s resignation as........

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