Waiting in the wings.

 The defence secretary John Healey, at 66 is by general census doing an excellent jobs - under demanding circumstances. A war in Ukraine and now a war in the Middle East with Iran. In a thoughtful profile of the defence secretary by Ailbhe Rea in this weeks New Statesman magazine - we get the first in depth analysis of him as both a Labour Party politician and family man. He clearly has what is referred to as ‘bottom’ in other words character. He is increasingly seen as a  potential leader of the party and therefore prime minister, should Starmer lose his job. Many see him as the modern day - Clement Attlee, who was so underrated as a politician. He came up on the outside lane and became leader. He was of course deputy prime minister to the charismatic prime minister Winston Churchill, during WW2. Today other ministers are talked about as being more likely to be prime minister, whether that’s Wes Streeting, Ed Miliband or the one time deputy leader Angela Rayner. However I think at this time of great international uncertainty and peril and the - world is turned upside down - having Healey in charge sounds like the rational choice. Other people in the party have said of him - ‘he has a certain granite like Quality’.