On Tuesday David Lammy greeted Angela Rayner with a kiss in front of the cameras in Downing Street as she arrived for the regular meeting of Sir Keir Starmer's Cabinet.
Days later he has taken her job as Deputy Prime Minister after her shock resignation for failing to pay enough tax on a holiday home purchase.
Mr Lammy, 53, the Tottenham MP, moved over from the Foreign Office to become Justice Secretary after the PM launched into a massive game of ministerial musical chairs.
Downing Street had previously guaranteeing he would stay as Foreign Secretary, suggesting he was made Deputy PM as well to avoid the appearance of a demotion from one of the four so-called 'big offices of state'.
He has been replaced by former home secretary Yvette Cooper, who becomes the sixth person to hold the post in the past five years.
