Earlier this year, the

But the official story from Team Starmer is that they are just trying to find the best possible candidates for the election. If that, by implication, means saying cheerio to some existing MPs, so be it.But another Labour source told me: “Keir is more interested in competence than ideology… there is obviously a role for the left of the Labour Party but it has to be as part of a team rather than people who throw bricks at the Labour bus."

The truth of what is going on?It’s perhaps a mixture of both.The “blue suits” as they are sometimes nicknamed, the (mainly) youngish men who eagerly work for Keir Starmer, not surprisingly, do want to make sure that the party is standing candidates who will work hard and well, and once elected, will be part of the project, not push against them.

That has involved in some parts of the country imposing candidates on local parties, backing former party staffers and activists closely connected with Starmer’s team as the next MP.newsletter to get Laura Kuenssberg's expert insight and insider stories every week, emailed directly to you.

But is it a “purge”, when so far only a small handful of former MPs have actually been blocked?

One experienced source on the Left tells me, there are “elements of a purge, but elements of the leader wanting to bring in a group of people who reflect what he wants and what he wants to pursue in government’."She's always there - I often use little Nessa lines if I want to divert somebody.

"Usually, if I want to tell somebody to back off!"Jones said her first foray into musical theatre involved a familiar face - none other than Rob Brydon, who plays Uncle Bryn.

Jones and Brydon both attended Porthcawl Comprehensive School as teenagers, where they first met."I used to do [musical theatre] at school... Rob Brydon and I were in several musicals together," she said.