With a growing number of Labour MPs publicly saying he should set a timetable to quit as leader and even more saying it privately, it is clear that if Sir Keir Starmer hopes to stay in Downing Street he has to do something to turn his fortunes around.
As he entered the weekend, the question was what can he do after historically awful election results for Labour.
His answer: to act like an ageing rocker and revive two of his party’s greatest hits from years back to appeal to the core membership who have been tempted by the political melodies of other parties, particularly Zack Polanski’s Greens.
And so it was that the cameras duly picked up first the former deputy leader Baroness Harriet Harman and then former prime minister Gordon Brown walking up Downing Street to be given jobs by Sir Keir.
Both have been handed roles to shore up significant problems for this prime minister.
The really big catch, Mr Brown, has been handed the role of special envoy for global finance. A man who was seen as a genuinely great chancellor, this helps start to deal with the total failure of Sir Keir’s economic policy with the current chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
The promise of “economic growth being the number one mission” is a distant memory which has barely materialised. But Mr Brown’s arrival also has echoes of Rishi Sunak appointing Lord David Cameron to be his foreign secretary when he needed to shore up support for his failing government in 2023.
Sir Keir brings in a man who was critical of the appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the US but one who commands respect and reverence in the party despite losing the 2010 general election.
The other ex-PM he could have looked to was Sir Tony Blair – who actually won three elections. But this would have inflamed the left of the party in a way which may have hastened his demise.
Baroness Harman meanwhile, the former mother of the House of Commons, is another figure from Labour’s recent past who commands respect.
Her role as the new adviser on women and girls deals with another live problem for the prime minister.
Ever since his failures to tackle the row over Asian grooming gangs targeting young white girls and the Mandelson appointment appeared to suggest he cared little for the victims of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Sir Keir has struggled to convince people he is serious about violence against women and girls (VAWG).
This is slightly ironic given that tackling VAWG is an issue the PM has been personally invested in since he was director of public prosecutions.
His inability to do politics well and communicate successfully has left him exposed on the issue.
But bringing in big beasts from the past also reveals another weakness with this prime minister.
It underlines the concerns that the current crop of Labour cabinet ministers and he himself are just not up to the task.
More than that, it appears to be an alternative strategy to his hopes to have a proper reset with a major reshuffle.
The speculated reshuffle may still happen after his speech on Monday, but most Labour MPs think Sir Keir is now too weakened to do a serious change and, for example, replace his chancellor or sack his ambitious health secretary Wes Streeting.
He may need to find a way though to bring back former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner to prevent a challenge from her.
But for now he is hoping that the reflected glory of two of the party’s most respected grandees will be enough to prevent a move against him by his own MPs.
