The unsackable has just resigned. Angela Rayner, Britain’s deputy prime minister, the deputy leader of the Labour Party and a standard-bearer of the trade-union movement, quit the government on September 5th. She had failed to pay the correct tax on a new property; to critics that is an act of particular hypocrisy given her career of denouncing the tax records of her rivals. The small upside for Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, is that he can say that he is keeping his promise to enforce government ethics, unlike the sleaze-ridden administration of his Tory predecessors. The rather greater downside is that it weakens his struggling administration and opens the door to a potentially messy battle to succeed her as deputy leader. It is unlikely that the ongoing cabinet reshuffle, including the appointment of her successor as deputy prime minister (a largely honorific position) will be enough to revive Labour’s fortunes.