Keir Starmer has promised to come up with a brand new rule on shadow ministers striking to finally clarify Labour’s stance once and for all – the moment he’s back from his holiday.. The new decision can’t come a moment too soon, given his last one – issued just before Sam Tarry was sacked – now lies in tatters after Navendu Mishra and Imran Hussain both broke it on Monday without consequence. Soon Labour will have announced more positions on whether shadow ministers can strike than actual policies for the electorate…

This timetable for Starmer’s latest emphatic rule, according to the Guardian’s Heather Stewart, is that Sir Keir will decide whether or not to punish Lisa Nandy for her meeting with strikers upon returning from his holiday. This was swiftly amended to clarify there’s no chance of disciplinary action against Nandy, instead Starmer “will decide whether to lift the picket line ban when he returns from his holiday on 15 August”. There’s a reason that even without a Tory Leader in situ Labour’s only 1% ahead of the Tories…