In the first decent skirmish of the Labour leadership race, Doctor the Honourable Tristram Julian William Hunt will today have a nice pop at self-proclaimed front-runner Andy Burnham. According to the Sun, Hunt will weaponise Burnham’s claims to be the ‘heart of Labour’:

“Not since 1983 have we been so out of step with the prevailing mood of the nation. You need to demonstrate you are on people’s side and earn the right to be trusted with their future. I believe that only comes when we offer a broad-based, forward-looking Labour project. A 100 per cent strategy, not the timid, institutionalised caution which led so many to believe we had a 35 per cent strategy. Of course we need to stop haemorrhaging support in our traditional heartlands. But we must ensure that same heart sends our message – pumps the blood – to parts of our country we no longer reach.”

With Hunt still refusing to say whether he’s in an out of the race, it looks more and more like he’s playing the role of outrider for someone else. Now Chuka is out, whose dirty work is the doctor doing?