After much self-aggrandising hype – whipped up very much on this side of the pond rather than in DC – that a Shadow Cabinet minister would be attending Biden’s inauguration ceremony, Starmer has finally ended the story. The Labour Party leader told Sky News this morning that:

“We hope to have a good working relationship… We would’ve loved to have been there for the inauguration, that’s not going to be possible with travel restrictions but we’re already building a close working relationship between my team and president-elect Biden’s team.”

The line from Starmer’s spokesperson during yesterday’s post-PMQs huddle was a more evasive “no plans to do so at this stage not least because of the ongoing pandemic and travel restrictions.” It was all getting a bit needy, remember Gordon Brown’s Obama brush past?

Far from the wildly spun yarn of Labour going and Tories snubbed, in reality not only is Labour not going, Boris is sending a representative after all. Guido understands that, as you would expect, new US ambassador Karen Pierce – picked by Boris last year – will be going along…