Keir Starmer should thank Anas Sarwar for keeping him in a job for a bit longer
On Monday morning, the prospect of the Prime Minister stepping down seemed on the cards. Anas Sarwar has given him more time.
When it became clear that Anas Sarwar was going to call for Sir Keir Starmer to resign, excitement buzzed through Westminster.
The prospect of the Prime Minister stepping down on Monday seemed like it was on the cards.
And the Scottish Labour leader seemed like he could be the person to spark the collapse.
It ended up a catastrophic failure.
Just before Mr Sarwar took to the stage, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy said he backed the PM. He was the first of many.
While the Scottish Labour leader hit out at “failures in the heart of Downing Street”, members of the UK cabinet came out one by one in support of Sir Keir.
Even Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, Scottish Labour’s election campaign coordinator who regularly calls Mr Sarwar a “once in a generation politician”, said he backed the PM.
If the aim was to take down Sir Keir, it did the opposite.
Going into Monday, many had rightly wondered if he would last the week.
Now, with the public backing of his Cabinet and the key potential leadership contenders, the Prime Minister is in a stronger position.
He has bought himself time until the Gorton and Denton by-election at the end of the month.
A poor result there and the same question will come up again.
But Sir Keir can breath for now, and he should be sending Mr Sarwar a ‘thank you’ card.
The move may have given Mr Sarwar some independence and brushed off the accusations from the SNP of being a branch office manager.
But what about the Scottish Labour MPs?
Some of them thought ousting the PM was the right move, but once it was clear that the big hitters were backing Sir Keir, they realised the timing was wrong.
They are now in an extremely awkward position. They will be asked if they are more loyal to their UK or Scottish leader.
Some will be comfortable saying one or the other. Others will say they support both or neither.
Only one of the 37 - regular critic Brian Leishman - publicly came out and said Mr Sarwar was right.
The whole debacle has frayed relations between the Scottish and UK parties and put Mr Alexander under the spotlight.
Of course this does not mean that Sir Keir has a long-term future as Prime Minister.
He is extremely unpopular, has made poor decisions and would need a miracle to last longer than a few months.
Luckily for him neither Angela Rayner or Wes Streeting are ready to mount a proper leadership challenge.
The Prime Minister has come out of this fiasco stronger and his Scottish leader has been diminished.
With a poor result looking likely in May, Mr Sarwar’s days also look like they could be numbered.
His Westminster colleagues may start thinking about who will succeed him a little bit earlier than they had planned.
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