Chuka can’t

Although Chuka Umunna was widely tipped to succeed Keith Vaz as chair of the home affairs select committee, in the end it was Yvette Cooper who proved triumphant. In fact, Umunna came a distant third in the election — with Caroline Flint coming second.

So, what went wrong? The word being put round Westminster is that the vote was split between Cooper and Umunna until the Tories — allegedly worried that Umunna would prove too great a threat as chair and then have a springboard to become leader — conspired to thwart the New Labour darling.

Alas, this version of events fails to ring true in the Conservative camp. ‘Let’s just say no Tories were losing sleep over Umunna’s bid,’ Mr S’s mole retorts. ‘He might want to look closer to home’.

Who ever could be behind the briefing?