Thursday, February 5, 2026

I have written that, for all the angst and turmoil among Labour MPs over the Peter Mandelson horror show, I get no sense that a serious attempt to depose Keir Starmer is being prepared. 

None of Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting, Shabana Mahmood and Ed Miliband has begun the big task of trying to assemble 81 Labour MPs who will go public to nominate them as a challenger to the prime minister. 

Starmer was in serious trouble before the Epstein files were published, and his position is now worse. But he will survive for now, because there is no apparently safe option to whom Labour MPs can turn.

Even if there were the equivalent of Rishi Sunak, who was available when Conservative MPs despaired of Boris Johnson, Labour MPs would fear ending up with the members choosing the Labour version of Liz Truss.

Why has "Three Blind Mice", a short story by Agatha Christie, not been published since 1948?

Answer at the bottom of today's email 

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I am sorry – sorry for what was done to you; sorry that so many people with power failed you

Keir Starmer addresses Jeffrey Epstein's victims in his speech

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Quiz answer: Because she adapted it into the play The Mousetrap in 1952, which is still running

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