I worked in Starmer's No 10 - his biggest blind spot is Rachel Reeves

When the history of Keir Starmer’s premiership is written, the name of Rachel Reeves will be stamped through like a stick of Blackpool rock.

From cutting pensioners’ winter fuel allowance to the welfare rout, so many of the Prime Minister’s most difficult moments have originated in the Treasury.

Now, with John Healey’s principled resignation over defence spending, they threaten to bookend his time in office.

To be fair to Reeves, she was dealt one of the worst hands of any Chancellor. Public finances ravaged by Covid, the after-shock of the Liz Truss mini-budget and public services on their knees.

But it is possible to play a bad hand poorly.