Wes Streeting did half of what was expected of him by quitting as Health Secretary. But he missed out the other 50 percent, which was to challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership.
There could be several reasons for this. He has always promised not to be first off the blocks and he is waiting for another to throw their hat in the ring. Or he may not yet have the 81 MPs needed to kickstart the contest as No10 has been claiming.
Or he may have seen LabourList polling today which shows that in a head-to-head with the PM, the former Cabinet minister would lose by a whopping 23 - 53 percent among party members who decide the outcome.
But, also according to this survey, the PM would not win against Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner or Ed Milliband.
Mr Streeting contented himself for the time being with some vicious words for the PM in his resignation letter.
“Where we need vision, we have a vacuum,” he wrote. “Where we need direction, we have drift”.
And he bluntly told Mr Starmer there was no way he would be leading Labour into the next election. Ouch, ouch and ouch.
I remember the days when Mr Streeting would sit down with me and talk of Mr Starmer in terms the devout reserve for the Messiah. If the PM comes back from this it really will be a miraculous resurrection.
Wes Streeting used to speak of Sir Keir Starmer 'in terms the devout reserve for the Messiah' says Nigel Nelson
|PA
No wonder the coffee the pair had together yesterday only lasted 16 minutes. Just time to gulp down a single espresso but not finish a large latte.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch described this as “a hit job” that has plunged the Labour Party into civil war. She is right. And the country might well think this lot is now no better than her lot were not so long ago.
At the time of writing, we were still awaiting a reaction from Lib Dem leader Ed Davey. Perhaps he is busy bungee jumping or kayaking somewhere and hasn’t heard the news.
The question now is what happens next? Only a whole bunch of Cabinet resignations would persuade the PM to quit and that seems unlikely.
Former Deputy PM Angela Rayner made it clear she is ready to stand now HMRC has given her a clean slate, though I got the impression she would rather it was someone else stopping Mr Streeting.
And on that subject Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is keeping schtum, which means all eyes are turning to the Manchester mayor. Andy Burnham now needs to find a seat, overcome any objections from Labour’s ruling NEC to sitting in it, getting selected for it and winning it.
It’s a tall order in a short time frame and achieving all that is uncertain. Which means that all the belligerents have done so far is rattle their sabres.
It’s all a bit 1939 and the Phoney War. But one thing we can all bet on – it won’t be too long before casualties come rolling in.