With the supportive sound of fists banging on desks ringing in his ears, Sir Keir Starmer left a meeting of his backbench MPs to join a friendly dinner with colleagues in Parliament.

But, as anyone who watched The Traitors knows, it doesn’t matter what they say when you’re in the room. Just yards away from where the premier was eating, knots of Labour MPs simultaneously gathered to plot in the private MPs’ bar, the Smoking Room.

“We were here until late talking about the who and the how and the when to replace him,” a minister told The i Paper the following day. New Feature

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Following conversations with dozens of MPs, Cabinet ministers and party strategists, it is clear that while a challenge against Starmer is not imminent, c

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