How Keir Starmer's fighting for political survival as Labour civil war erupts

So Keir Starmer this morning finds himself fighting for his political survival because MPs in the Labour Party are circling now after just 17 months of Keir Starmer being in Downing Street. And what we've seen overnight is a bitter briefing war, a breakout between Downing Street advisers on the one hand, and then the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, who they accuse of plotting a leadership coup against their boss, the Prime Minister. Now, how this all started is for some months now, many Labour MPs have been unhappy with Keir Starmer's leadership. They say that the government is often rudderless with no proper sense of direction. They say that he hasn't made time to see them. He's often away out of the country. And actually, some of the policies which he's pursuing are more to combat the threat of reform and lurching to the right rather than actually doing proper Labour policies, which they think they got elected to do. And so there's been questions swirling about Keir Starmer's leadership for some time now, and he has appeared quite weak at times. So what Downing Street advisers tried to do was get on the front foot and actually head off any potential leadership threat by saying that any moves against the Prime Minister would be wildly irresponsible on the one hand, because it could spook the markets, but also it would really threaten the Prime Minister's position, but to the point he would come out swinging and he would come out fighting. And any attempts to undermine or challenge his leadership would be met with resistance from the Prime Minister, i.e. he would not just fold under the pressure and chuck in the towel. In this briefing war, what happened is that the Health Secretary's name has come up as a potential plotter. This has been fiercely denied by Wes Streeting, and actually he is now pointing the finger back at Downing Street aides who he accuses of undermining him and stoking a bitter Labour civil war. That is exactly what we now have in the Labour Party and at the heart of government, because far from shutting down concerns and speculation about Keir Starmer's authority, if anything it has emboldened the people, the very people, that have had serious doubts about Keir Starmer. And so it's been a pretty botched attempt to see off a rebellion, because if anything he's now fighting for his political life.