Isabel Hardman

It was a rather cruel pathetic fallacy that the Prime Minister who had to resign early after creating a political storm by accidentally taking Britain out of the European Union gave his final speech from Downing Street under rumbling, rolling storm clouds. At one point, the wind whooshed back David Cameron’s hair and rain began to splatter on the hundreds of cameras watching his statement. Cameron clearly wanted to use the statement to tell the British people what he thought his legacy was, and to highlight the ways in which he thought he had performed particularly well.

David Cameron has chaired his last ever, emotional, Cabinet meeting this morning, with just a final Prime Minister’s Questions lying between him and freedom. He may want to follow the example of Tony Blair and have a memorable sign off such as ‘and that is that, the end’, though it’s not clear whether he’ll find quite so many MPs keen to give him a standing ovation as he walks out, the Prime Minister who accidentally took Britain out of the European Union. But what Cameron chooses to do next is interesting. He has already said that he wants to stand again as MP for Witney in 2020.

As well as all the other things that Labour MPs are anxious about at the moment, there is genuine anxiety in the party today that some MPs are considering splitting off to join a new, moderate group in politics. Certainly Labour MPs are pretty miserable about the state of their party - and about the way many of them are being treated by their own local parties. And many Labourites are starting to believe that a split is inevitable, with many arguing that it is wrong to be wary because of what happened to the SDP, as this would be a much larger chunk of MPs who would break off from the party than did in the 1980s.

Jeremy Corbyn was insistent this morning on the Andrew Marr Show that he isn’t going anywhere. More than that: he insisted that Labour is ‘changing the way politics is done’. His opponents in the party would agree, as it happens. Corbyn is going nowhere, certainly not anywhere near to Number 10, but also nowhere near being a functioning Opposition leader. And he is changing the way politics is done, by making it more and more difficult for Labour to ever get into power. The interview itself was proof that under Corbyn, Labour cannot function as an Opposition.

Finally, the Labour coup is about to begin. Or at least, Labour MPs are talking about the fact that the Labour coup is about to begin, after weeks of threatening it. After talks between the party’s Deputy Leader Tom Watson and Labour’s trade union backers broke up today, Angela Eagle has said she will launch her leadership challenge to Jeremy Corbyn on Monday. The talks broke down because Corbyn would not resign and the parliamentary Labour party would not accept his leadership after voting overwhelmingly in favour of a motion of no confidence two weeks ago, and so there was no possible compromise to reach. Corbyn’s camp are confident that they have the support of Labour members.

Things have gone mysteriously quiet in the Labour party. Every so often, Len McCluskey and Tom Watson emerge from a meeting, asking their comrades to give them a little bit more time before any of them move against Jeremy Corbyn. And nothing seems to happen. How much more time do the plotters need to give the unions and the party’s deputy leader before they give up and make a move on the leader? Or have thy already given up, and decided that they can’t defeat him and that it’s all over? Some reports in the past few days suggest that Labour MPs have marched all the way up the hill by resigning from the frontbench and passing a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn, only to get close to the summit and realise they don’t like heights.

This afternoon we will find out which two Tory MPs will face the Conservative party members in the leadership contest. Theresa May is the favourite and is far out in front of her closest rival, Andrea Leadsom, who has a decent lead over the third candidate, Michael Gove. But neither have had a very good few days. Leadsom was mocked for talking about frontal cortexes at the first party hustings this week, and has endured a great deal of criticism about her claims she is an experienced City figure.

Tony Blair appeared emotional, sounded hoarse, and constantly fixated upon his belief that he acted in ‘good faith’ over Iraq when he responded to the Chilcot report this afternoon. The former Prime Minister spoke or took questions for two hours, and started by saying that he accepted ‘full responsibility, without exception and without excuse’. But he also made clear that he disagreed with Chilcot’s findings that the decision to invade Iraq could have been delayed. The key feature of the long press conference, though, was Blair ruminating constantly on whether he had acted in good faith when taking the decision to go to war.