Labour’s toxic and very public display of infighting, briefing and backstabbing over the Peter Mandelson scandal shows us one thing. When the time comes, whoever replaces Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, will be just as terrible.

And they will have extra quality that the current incumbent of No 10 doesn’t have – a conniving political brain. Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner have been on full display as the tumult crashed around Downing Street over the past week.

Both have been canny in the way they have positioned themselves, while their boss has faced a very public flogging.

Rayner, the red-haired femme fatale who flaunted getting her Barnet done on TikTok, before coming to Starmer’s rescue by publicly backing him, has been on manoeuvres pretty much since she was sacked over her dodgy tax affairs last September.

That still hangs over her head, but friends of the former deputy PM say she is “ready” for a leadership bid.

There’s also the revelation that a website claiming to launch a leadership campaign for her was briefly published last month.

One senior Labour figure recently said: “Angela says she took the scars for Jeremy Corbyn, she took the scars for Keir Starmer, and so the next time she takes the scars it will be for herself.”

Another said MPs who were “frothing at the mouth” at the chance to install Streeting as leader were “mad because he has been damaged by association with Mandy [Mandelson]”.

Blue-eyed Streeting, on the other hand, was supposedly behind Anas Sarwar’s failed coup to oust the Prime Minister.

He then published WhatsApp exchanges between himself and Mandelson in a naked attempt to clear the decks ahead of a potential leadership contest.

Those close to Streeting accuse Rayner allies of exacerbating divides within the party. One said: “The Labour Party is pretty sick of the toxic briefing culture in No 10 and will not want to bring in something even more nasty.”

Streeting and Rayner are not the only two potential candidates being talked about in Westminster.

Some on the soft left of the party, who would normally be Rayner allies, are concerned about polls that show she is one of the least popular Labour figures with the public at large.

Current deputy Labour leader, Lucy Powell, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, or the Defence Secretary, John Healey, could all be alternative candidates.

Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, has not given up hope of returning to the Commons, having been blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election. However, a leadership contest in the next few weeks will be too early for him, given that the party leader must be drawn from the ranks of sitting MPs.

Miliband has ruled himself out, though.

Some in the party believe Shabana Mahmood, who has conservative social views but economic views on the left of the party, would be the best successor.

Her standing among Labour members, however, has been hit by the tough stance she has taken on immigration as Home Secretary.

One unlikely candidate being talked up by some among the 2024 intake is Al Carns, a former Royal Marines officer.

So, where are we with Starmer now?

Even the slightest of scratches could be the terminal blow that collapses his premiership.

And there is no shortage of pitfalls ahead: the Manchester by-­election, the May local elections and the massive dump of ­Mandelson texts all present moments of jeopardy.

It could take weeks, it could take months.

Yet with such awful poll numbers, it is unlikely Starmer can cheat political death indefinitely.