John McDonnell may be just hours away from losing the Labour whip, as Sir Keir is reportedly preparing to finally boot him from the party if he makes a scheduled appearance at a Stop The War rally this evening. A rally that’s also set to feature the (inevitable) appearance of the independent MP for Islington North, who admittedly has nothing left to lose by now…

It follows Sir Keir’s stern warning to his MPs on Monday that any member who draws a “false equivalence” between NATO and Russia would immediately be shown the door. Last week, Starmer also demanded all 11 Labour MPs who’d signed Stop the War’s letter withdraw their names for the sake of unifying the party in favour of NATO. Eventually, they all complied. Corbyn’s name is still on there, obviously.

McDonnell has so far refused to comment on whether he’s still planning to show up to the rally this evening. According to HuffPo, a Labour source said:

“If he goes, he’ll lose the whip. Any Labour MPs who speak at anything that is anti-Nato from now on are likely to be out.”

The event starts at 6.30 pm. The clock’s ticking…

UPDATE: McDonnell has told LabourList he’s pulling out of the event:

“I have seen all the speculation about my attendance at tonight’s Stop the War meeting and reports of threats if I do. My response is that people are dying on the streets of Ukrainian cities. This is not the time to be distracted by political arguments here […] Nothing is more important at this time. Nothing should distract us from that. So I won’t feed into that distraction by going tonight.”

Poor Jeremy’s been left high and dry…