In the days running up to the Labour party conference one of Keir Starmer’s most senior aides took him aside and told him he had to get a grip of his No 10 operation after weeks of damaging headlines over tensions within his top team.
The aide was not alone. A handful of other advisers and friends had made a similar plea to the prime minister. Downing Street was dysfunctional, they told him, and the whole government was at risk of being undermined.
