The sands of time are rapidly running out for Keir Starmer as Labour gets ready to confirm Andy Burnham as the new party leader.
With his departure from Downing Street now inked in for Monday 20 July Sir Keir is spending his final days as prime minister securing his legacy – and making sure Mr Burnham does not nick it from him.
With a week to go, Sir Keir has been rushing out his announcements.
First off Sir Keir used a special reception at Downing Street with the Jewish community to announce that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council (IRGC) would be banned from the UK in a huge moment for British foreign policy.
After years of successive governments avoiding the IRGC issue, he has, in his final days in charge, grasped the nettle on a group responsible for more international terrorism than any other.
It was a nice riposte to Mr Burnham’s attack on Labour for not getting it “right” on Gaza under Sir Keir’s leadership.
Shortly after, Sir Keir also announced the long-awaited Hillsborough Law, a piece of legislation which will give a duty of candour to public servants linked to the stadium disaster in 1989 where 97 Liverpool fans were crushed to death.
This is an issue very close to Mr Burnham’s heart but there was no way that Sir Keir was leaving it to the man who has essentially stolen his job.
He even manage to sneak out a “last minute dot com” trade deal with Switzerland.
Earlier this month, we also saw Sir Keir unveil the Defence Improvement Plan (DIP) to ensure he laves a legacy on defence spending – although part of that is a £4.7bn black hole that Mr Burnham will have to fill.
Sir Keir is also busily ensuring this week that the Coalition of the Willing’s aim of securing peace for Ukraine is sown up before he leaves office.
And Shabana Mahmood has announced the change of the law to deal with deporting a grooming gang leader.
Finally, if England wins the World Cup next weekend, Sir Keir has made sure it is he, not Mr Burnham, who will be there representing the government – and announcing the probable bank holiday to celebrate.
All this may seem small minded and, in some cases, things that Sir Keir perhaps should have got around to doing much earlier. The DIP and Hillsborough Law seemed to have been sitting in his in-tray for an awfully long time.
But prime ministers do not expect to be forced out early. And they tend to fight departing until the bitter end. So when they are given no choice, the race is always on to secure their legacy.
Whether it was Theresa May rushing through climate legislation or Boris Johnson’s bungled levelling up programme, there is a desperate desire to have something they can point to as a major success from their tenure in government.
In the case of Sir Keir, his big legacy issues were mostly to do with sorting out Labour and winning an election after the calamity of the Jeremy Corbyn leadership. Top of his list has been ridding the party of the “scourge of antisemitism.”
His other legacy issue was something that was forced on him by his own Labour MPs after he had resisted i – ending the two child benefit cap.
So given that, and the animosity he feels towards Mr Burnham for taking his job, Sir Keir wants to make sure he gets the credit for these last remaining significant measures – and not his successor.
