Chris Mason: Anatomy of the Fall of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer

As reported at the time, it was clear that this could not be the end of the matter – and it proved to be. The election in May cemented in the minds of countless MPs what many of them had long feared – that their leader was deeply, deeply unpopular and cost them their party support. Labor MPs, channeling what they saw as voters’ views, made Sir Kier’s imminent departure inevitable. Against that backdrop, Andy Burnham failed to rule out a by-election in Greater Manchester to give him a chance to return to Westminster and take over the Labor leadership.

Now, at the end of the week when the Prime Minister set out his timetable for his resignation, and at the end of the week when the newly elected Andy Burnham set out his government’s programme, we see the rest of Sir Keir’s government crumble before our eyes.

The story of the public dispute between the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister Immigration Minister Mike Tapp’s future It is a study of coherence in the discipline and dissolution of the state.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is angry that one of her junior ministers is seen as inferior.

As Burnham, expected to become the next prime minister, considers who will get the job in his new government, Tapp is setting up his policy tent.

Tapp, incidentally, was loyal to Sir Keir to the end.

And the Prime Minister, who was told by Mahmud last month that he should step down, has now rejected his public demand to oust Tapp.

This is, to put it mildly, a certain distance from a group of civil servants acting in groups and in solidarity. The last scraps of power are being jostled in Sir Kiir’s final weeks in Downing Street.

Meanwhile, in a cluster of offices in Westminster and Manchester, a government-in-waiting takes shape.

Andy Burnham will deliver a rally early next week outlining some of the key themes he plans and is likely to become Prime Minister by the middle of next month.