According to the Whitehall grapevine, it was the moment that growing tensions between the two most senior men in the British Government finally exploded into the open.
'You are supposed to protect me from things like this!' a furious Sir Keir Starmer is said to have bellowed at Morgan McSweeney, the man dubbed The Real Deputy Prime Minister.
'That's exactly what I was trying to do!' Mr McSweeney roared back.
The extraordinary exchange – relayed to The Mail on Sunday by a highly placed source – came after Sir Keir returned to No10 on Wednesday following his Commons mauling over Peter Mandelson's links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
No 10 denies the encounter took place as described – and even tried to deny that chief of staff Mr McSweeney was in the country at the time, before backtracking.
