This is The Guardian.

I'm not challenging the Prime Minister.

I'm not standing against him.

I'm not doing any of the things that some silly brief has said overnight.

As for pressure, I'll be honest, this silly briefing's water off a duck's back. The Labour Party has been pushed into chaos again, but this time

it's doing it to itself. I'm John Harris and you're listening to Politics Week the UK for The Guardian.

There are two big interconnected stories this week about institutions in crisis.

One is the Labour Party, the other is the BBC.

We'll talk about the BBC later, but first, on Tuesday evening, it became clear that people

close to Keir Starmer, yet the ones whose names you never hear, were briefing the media

about possible threats to his leadership.

The roles in this drama, or farce,

are supposedly being played by West Streeting, the Health Secretary and his cabinet colleague,

the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud, who only a few weeks ago was being heralded as one of the

party's best hopes against Nigel Farage and Reform UK. But it seems that this tactic to keep MPs

in their place may have spectacularly

backfired, with the spotlight now turned on the toxic culture in 10 Downing Street. My fellow

Politics Weekly UK host, Pippa Kriara and Kieran Stacey are here with me now from Westminster.

Hello to you both. Hello. Hi, John. Pippa, you helped to break this story on Tuesday night.

Tell me how, from your perspective, the Labour Party has got itself into such a mess.

It's absolutely astonishing, isn't it?

I mean, this is an operation which once upon a time, believe it or not, John,

...