Angela Eagle picks the worst possible moment to launch her leadership bid

As leadership launches go, the timing could not have been worse for Angela Eagle. Moments before she was due to set out her pitch, rumours started to circulate that Andrea Leadsom was dropping out of the race for the Tory leadership. By the time Eagle had actually started speaking, Leadsom was elsewhere reading a statement confirming the news to a scrum of journalists. All of this seems particularly unfortunate for Eagle given how long she appears to have spent mulling the decision. In the end, she couldn’t have picked a worse moment to actually show her hand. Though the publicity was snuffed out by this morning’s other events, what about the significance of Eagle’s bid? Here was her pitch:

‘I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think I could be a good Prime Minister for Britain. Now these are dark times for Labour and these are dangerous times for our country. A referendum result designed to settle an argument in the Conservative party has resulted in a country being torn apart, our economy damaged, our society hurt.