The language of Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds this morning was not the most fulsome defence of his boss, the prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Like Sir Keir, Mr Thomas-Symonds is a lawyer by training and instead of issuing a defence of the PM, he essentially repeated a third-person summary of what Sir Keir had said without actually expressing his own thoughts.
He noted: “The prime minister said he made a mistake in appointing Lord Mandelson. Most importantly, the prime minister has apologised about this decision to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who have to be re-traumatised and go through the memory of their terrible experiences every time we have a public debate around this.”
This lukewarm response represents a growing frustration among Labour MPs, with many angry about what they saw in the papers released on Wednesday.
They are furious that the prime minister did not answer questions on the Mandelson files himself, instead parachuting in chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Darren Jones, to face furious MPS from all sides of the Chamber.
There is also outrage about the fact that these files show Sir Keir received the warnings about Mandelson regarding his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his closeness to China, his concerning business interests and the high risk of “reputational damage”.
While Wednesday’s release of papers is only partial, there is more than enough to see that Sir Keir chose to accept the word of two close advisers – former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and former director of communications Matthew Doyle – rather than the red flags being raised by impartial civil servants.
Nadia Whittome, an MP on the left, expressed publicly what many more are saying privately.
She said: “Everything coming out of the Mandelson files confirms that his links to Epstein were known to all, and that appointing him showed both terrible judgment and a disregard for due process.”
So the questions are: how can this prime minister survive? Why is he not already out?
The answer to those questions is actually very simple. It is difficult to see him survive much longer, but Sir Keir’s current situation is helped by two factors.
First, there is no obvious replacement. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s failure to get into parliament – after being blocked by Sir Keir – means the most obvious contender for the Labour leadership crown is stuck outside Westminster.
Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, seems poised to make a bid but can do nothing until an investigation into her tax affairs by HMRC is completed.
Health secretary Wes Streeting seems to have blown his chance to replace Sir Keir and bottled his earlier opportunities. He is now also damaged by association with Mandelson.
Meanwhile, home secretary Shabana Mahmood is the darling of the right of the party but has a long way to go to woo the left-wing majority.
While the Conservatives were no strangers to ousting their prime ministers, there was often a replacement candidate who quickly emerged as a frontrunner to succeed them. This is not the case for Labour now.
But even if there was a clear candidate and Ms Rayner had somehow resolved her tax problems, Sir Keir would still not have to resign this week for another reason: Labour MPs do not want a leadership election while they are make-or-break elections in Wales, Scotland, London and councils across England.
This year’s devolved and local elections may be the most important for years and could see a major change in the political map of the UK. Labour looks set to lose its dominance in Wales and London, as well as being pushed to third place in Scotland.
Once Scottish leader Anas Sarwar’s attempt to remove Sir Keir floundered last month, the opportunity to move on from him before these elections was lost.
Now all those involved with the various leadership camps or plotters acknowledge that they will have to wait until after the elections on 7 May before making a decision on Sir Keir.
It may be that he will struggle to survive beyond May in the aftermath of the results, but until then, Sir Keir looks set to remain unchallenged as prime minister – whatever revelations come to drag the popularity and reputation of his government down even further.
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