Day one of a new term at Westminster and Sir Keir Starmer was already facing double trouble from Labour MPs.
First, a partial arms export ban on Israel, which opponents claimed was a sop to pro-Gaza Labour left-wingers, ended up pleasing no-one.
And then, predictably, at a packed Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, senior cabinet ministers faced a marathon grilling on winter fuel payments.
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In a Commons statement, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the suspension of 30 out of the UK’s 350 arms export licences to Israel.
There was, he said, “a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
But he stressed it wasn’t a “blanket ban” or an arms embargo and said UK arms exports to Israel only make up 1% of the total.
So is it just a gesture, then? It looks like it, according to MPs of all parties.
That was certainly the conclusion of Labour’s political opponents.
The shadow foreign secretary, Andrew Mitchell, said it “has all the appearance of something designed to satisfy Labour’s backbenches”.
Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick said it was a “shameful gesture to appease the hard left”.
And earlier, in the Commons exchanges after Mr Lammy’s statement, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson told him it was a bad decision he’d live to regret.
Mr Wilson said: “I believe that it is, unfortunately, the result of the pressure that Labour MPs have felt in their constituencies from pro-Gaza protests.”
Mr Lammy replied: “I’ve not gone as far as Margaret Thatcher went in 1982….
