After a day of furious briefings between factions, the Labour Party has fallen mysteriously – and ominously – quiet. Shadow cabinet members I’ve spoken to are none the wiser. They are waiting by their phones to hear the latest moves in a reshuffle that was expected to begin at some point today but which has only managed to achieve one thing so far: an almighty and very ugly row about the sacking of Angela Rayner. And that was 24 hours ago.
I understand that there should still be something later this evening, but the main problem facing Starmer is that he is trying to move Rayner from party chair and also get a new chief whip, replacing the very long-in-the-tooth Nick Brown. It’s a brave move, given whips are an important stabilising influence in a reshuffle, and given the party’s deputy leader will always have their own power base. Doing both at once is quite bold, to put it mildly.
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