Telegraph sums it up.

Politics Newsletter banner Good afternoon,

While the fury among backbenchers might be less incendiary than it was 24 hours ago, the Prime Minister is fighting for his political survival. It’s a battle few Labour MPs now believe he can win, which is why they’re busying themselves deciding what – or rather who – comes next.

Annabel Denham, Senior Political Commentator

Is Two-Tier Keir’s time near? (Other alias - Kiev Starver)

Is it all over for Keir Starmer, one of Britain’s least popular Prime Ministers? His only hope may be that as Lord Mandelson’s egregious conduct becomes a police matter, it might buy Two-Tier a little time. If investigators don’t begin interviews until next week, he could limp through the weekend and vanish into recess, possibly on another of his foreign trips. After which the PLP will struggle to ditch him before May – even if Labour loses Gorton and Denton, as seems more than possible since blocking Andy Burnham’s attempt to stand as an MP.

Today’s car crash press conference should have been a moment, finally, for at least a show of contrition. Instead, it was an exercise in misplaced indignation, Gollum-like self-pity, and the all-too-familiar lawyerly attempt to downplay the nature of Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, even though far too much evidence of their friendship has long been in the public domain. In perhaps the worst display of buck-passing since the Nuremberg Trials, he alluded to a lack of confidence in our security services. Our enemies, no doubt listening in as usual, will have laughed until they cried.

It was vintage Starmer: self-righteous, tone-deaf, politically maladroit and a reminder of why he has never had the full-hearted support of his backbenchers let alone the put-upon British public.

I began my day speaking to a Starmer loyalist – fast becoming an endangered species – who was pleading for calm heads and warning against excessive speculation. But it looks as if that moment has passed: we are firmly into Boris/Sue Gray/Partygate territory, where the issue isn’t so much the initial offence but the subsequent evasions and wounded outrage. Calm heads are nowhere to be found.

There are caveats, however. As one Labour source put it to me: “I’ve not spoken to a single Labour MP – including senior ministers – who think Starmer will survive. But there is no clear view on who and when.” Remember that removing a Labour leader is not a simple matter. The threshold of 80 MPs is high, and the risk considerable. As for Kemi Badenoch’s cheeky offer to Labour MPs to join her party in seeking a no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister, this will go nowhere. Parties prefer these things to come from within, not be foisted on them by their political foes.

What’s more, no one will want to trigger a process that leaves the membership with only one name on the ballot, or worse, a divisive contest where the wild-eyed membership delivers a Corbyn 2.0 – except this time the maniac would have the keys to No10. The Labour Party knows the electoral arithmetic all too well; it’s why they are so jittery. Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband are, to put it generously, not overly popular with the public. Getting the more personable Andy Burnham into the frame is proving difficult – and many may be willing to wait for the King of the North to ride to the rescue, again buying Starmer time.

But who knows? Perhaps the endgame won’t require 80 courageous rebels. Instead we could see Cabinet resignations and intolerable private pressure forcing the PM to resign. It’s happened before. A number of Labour MPs are now urging Rayner to strike. But she’s surely too cute for that: she won’t want to be anybody’s stalking horse. If, though, she does succeed, we may as well pinch some of those impounded small boats and leave her to it.

Starmer blames security services for Mandelson vetting fiasco ➤

My must reads

Janet Daley: This pathetic attempt to shift the blame has to be the end of Starmer

Allister Heath: These are the humiliating death throes of Starmer’s sordid regime

Annabel Denham: Beware the excessive hounding of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Matt Cartoon

ED - They imagined their world of Satanic torture, rape and killing of children to be a private sphere. Now it's blown wide open, they no longer know how to present themselves. They should all be hung up of course, but in some ways seeing their discomfiture at the loss of their beloved status is also a nice start as a punishment. Were they hung up, we'd miss out on them having to live with themselves in the cold light of day. They can be disintegrated slowly and painfully.