Say what you like about Peter Mandelson, he was right about the dog mess – you really can't get rid of the stink, can you?
That memorable remark about his late friend, paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, being "muck that you can't get off your shoe… the smell never goes away", was – can anyone else smell that? – wafting back through the corridors of Westminster. And it was the prime minister who had trodden it in.
Having quelled a popular uprising among Labour backbenchers with an apologetic address to his parliamentary party – to which John Rentoul noted number-one rival Angela Rayner had arrived "looking relaxed, all smiles and great hair, to hear Keir Starmer beg for his job" – the PM's decisive next move was to step into some other proverbial doo-doo.
With Mandelson dealt with, the PM promptly faced new questions about another political appointment, following the suspension from the party of Matthew Doyle, his paedophile-linked former comms chief for whom Starmer had only just secured a life peerage in the new year honours list.
That it was known Lord Doyle had campaigned for a councillor who had been charged with child sex offences, but Starmer still ennobled him regardless, was, for Sean O'Grady, another of his "lamentably poor judgments" – another example of his being "far too gullible about his own associates".
"It is the strangest thing to befall a man whose legal and political career has been based on his integrity and tireless work to protect the vulnerable and, as director of public prosecutions, to pursue the grooming gangs."
And to think that, at the start of the week, MPs had toyed with deposing Starmer altogether, after, as O'Grady also wrote, Anas Sarwar, "the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, decided to denounce the leader of the British Labour Party".
But, having peered over the precipice, the backbenchers backed off. The coup attempt had opened a window, and MPs took a gulp of fresh air.
For Anne McElvoy, the prime minister's battered authority now rests on his willingness to tackle the culture of power around him, his supposed "boys' club". "The shock factor here is how quickly much of the Starmerite superstructure has collapsed. Tim Allan's departure as communications chief – punctuated by a WhatsApp profile image that read "Out of office, gone golfing" – is symptomatic of an entire operation in crisis… There remains an awkward silence about the role of a largely male team making key decisions, including the Mandelson appointment."
Chris Blackhurst wondered if Starmer's unerring ability to, and I paraphrase, find the nearest steaming pile to tread in, was not a bug but a feature of his government – and but the latest sign that the United Kingdom has simply become ungovernable.
Westminster's willingness to even entertain the idea of appointing a seventh prime minister in 10 years was evidence that we are now a "nation that no longer holds its leaders in esteem. Arguably, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were not fit to govern, but that misses the point. Where its ruling class is concerned, Britain is in the grip of a deep malaise that goes far beyond the occupant of No 10."
And yet, as Monday's leader column noted, Starmer's time is not yet up. "It would be detrimental to the country if the prime minister were to be bowled out of office so soon after winning a historic election. For all the setbacks, he must come out fighting."
And mind where he's stepping.
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