Keir Starmer has had a pretty torrid couple of months but, as the curtain comes down on another turbulent week, not even Donald Trump attacking the Chagos Islands deal again, or the exposure of how the pressure group that got Starmer elected was smearing journalists, compares with the turmoil in the royal household.
The Prime Minister waits anxiously to see what further demons are released from the Pandora’s box of the Epstein files, but for now No. 10 has done what it can to cauterise the wound by disposing of Peter Mandelson. There remains frustration in Downing Street that the police have not moved more quickly to let them release the files, but many were grateful when the spotlight shifted elsewhere with the arrest yesterday of the prince formerly known as Andrew on his 66th birthday.
