There’s blood in the water and if Sir Keir Starmer is not careful the sharks will be circulating soon - Ismail Mulla

It was all about party discipline. Starmer the chief who couldn’t be challenged. Winning was all that mattered.

That win came but it was by proxy. The Tories were a shambles at the last general election. Even a gaggle of geese would have provided a more coherent challenge than the dysfunctional circus the Conservatives had become.

You only need to look at how Reform, operating then as a business concern and not even a proper political party, was able to gain a foothold across the country.

The one thing that Starmer could claim was that his iron fisted discipline was a factor in getting them over the line. Labour had ruthlessly expunged the party of those that didn’t fit into Starmer’s vision. Lets not forget, many of them the PM had relied on support from when he had aspirations for the leadership.

That lack of loyalty could well come back to hurt the PM when his own authority wanes and the daggers are out

It’s one thing playing politics and it’s another delivering policy. No matter how loyal an MP may be to their great leader, when their job is at risk it becomes a matter of self-preservation.

And that is what transpired after Liz Kendall’s proposed welfare reforms went down like a lead balloon with MPs representing areas with high levels of benefit claimants.

All of a sudden angry letters, Tweets (if we can still call it that) and emails will have landed on the doorstep of MPs already concerned about what the next general election will mean for them. Especially with Reform snapping at their heels.

Starmer says he did not get to grips with the growing rebellion over welfare reforms earlier as he was focused on international affairs.

The Prime Minister said he was occupied with the G7 and Nato summits and the escalating tensions in the Middle East for much of the past two weeks.

While international issues are an important part of a PM’s brief, a lot of communities that the Government has alienated don’t want to hear this.

It is also worth the PM examining how he can start delivering domestically. Starmer seems more at ease playing the role of diplomat abroad than facing the difficulties here. If it wasn’t for his success on the international stage, it would be churlish to say otherwise, the PM and his Government have been underwhelming at best.

Margaret Thatcher may have famously said “U-turn if you want to” and sealed her reputation as the ‘Iron Lady’ but Starmer’s already made enough U-turns to leave his party feeling dizzy.

Aside from setting back welfare reforms, there won’t be any meaningful attempt to fix what is a broken system given the fallout from this bill and the subsequent shoddy handling of it, caving into rebels has left Starmer in a compromised position.

Backbenchers will be emboldened. There are those that would revel in seeing Starmer getting the same treatment dispensed on them and some of their former colleagues. The realisation will also be dawning on newbies that they can’t always toe the party line.

The first drops of blood have entered the water and it won’t be long before the sharks start circling. And the PM’s team won’t simply be able to defenestrate those that don’t agree with them.

The irony is that this whole kerfuffle over welfare reforms could have been avoided had Labour devised a coherent plan in opposition and sold it to the electorate on the doorstep. Instead the problem with vague promises of change is people have their own vision of what they would like it to look.

The biggest test is yet to come for Starmer and that is how he differentiates his party from the Tories. Not because the Tories pose an imminent threat but rather because the electorate is pining for an alternative and Nigel Farage is making hay as a result.

The PM would do well to put the passport away for a while and knuckle down on domestic policy. Or else he might find himself in need of a life raft.