There will be plenty of commentators writing Keir Starmer’s political obituary over the coming days.
Appointing Peter Mandelson, failing to fund our armed forces properly, failing to cut welfare . . . I could go on.
But the fundamental issue is much simpler than many people realise.
Starmer confused winning a general election with having an agenda for government.
Winning an election is only ten per cent of what a Prime Minister needs to do to be successful.
You cannot exercise power if you do not first win it.
But the reason that so many Prime Ministers are failing is that our political system has become obsessed with campaigning for elections and forgotten how to govern.
We have become experts at polling, data and getting elected.
We have general elections, mayoral elections, Senedd elections, Holyrood elections, county elections and parish elections.
We have become exceptionally good at running campaigns.
But too many politicians no longer know how to make things work once they win.
This is what I am trying to do with my mission to Get Britain Working.
It is all about bringing common sense back into government.
Too often, we stop people using their judgment.
We force them to follow processes, tick boxes and procedures, until they end up doing obviously foolish things.
People stop thinking for themselves.
That is what happened to Keir Starmer.
It’s how we ended up with a government that found £4billion for walking and cycling, but can’t find the money for our armed forces.
A government that is potentially shortening the sentences of grooming gang perpetrators and culling ponies on Dartmoor.
And unless politicians learn the lesson that you need a plan for government, we will keep on getting the same failed governments.
It will probably happen to Andy Burnham.
He has no plan for government either.
Winning the Makerfield by-election does not make someone ready for No10 Downing Street.
The same applies to Nigel Farage. Reform talks endlessly about power, but power requires preparation.
Nigel Farage does not have enough serious candidates.
Many of the people he has recruited would struggle to pass the standards of someone appointed to run the village fete, let alone govern a country.
Reform has attracted some of the Conservatives who generated headlines and controversy, but not necessarily the people who know how to make government work.
They have no defence spokesman. No foreign affairs spokesman. Yet Farage is already calling for a general election.
That tells you everything you need to know about Reform.
Running the country is not the same as having arguments online.
The reason Keir Starmer has had to resign is ultimately about one thing: his own Defence Secretary publicly concluded that this government could not keep the country safe.
Anyone pretending this is about something else is not being serious.
We have Russia becoming increasingly aggressive towards Nato and firing on yachts in the English Channel.
HMS Dragon was stuck in a dry dock in Portsmouth when our airbases in Cyprus were under attack from Iranian missiles, after Labour paused the Conservative government’s defence plans and failed to produce a credible replacement plan.
Critical investment decisions are being delayed.
Confidence is draining away from the economy.
Labour are abandoning our oil and gas industry with a disastrous effect on British businesses.
At the same time, the Conservatives’ by-election victory in Aberdeen South showed that the British people often have more common sense than the politicians who claim to speak for them.
They understand that we do not have time for Labour to spend months engaged in internal party navel-gazing.
The country needs leadership now.
Keir Starmer clearly failed at the job. I wish him no ill will and I genuinely feel sorry for him.
But the timetable he has set out looks more like a farewell tour than a plan to grip the problems facing Britain.
Andy Burnham now needs to answer some serious questions.
Being Mayor of Manchester is a completely different job from being Prime Minister.
As mayor, he was given a budget and a defined set of responsibilities.
Running a country is different — you have to find the money, someone will always lose out, tough decisions have to be taken.
The question Labour MPs should be asking is not whether Andy Burnham can win elections, but whether he can govern.
Unless they, and the rest of the country, learn that lesson, Britain will keep on producing election winners and government failures.
The Conservative Party under my leadership has learned from what went wrong.
That is why I set out an Alternative King’s Speech last month. Not slogans. Not gimmicks. A serious programme of practical, common-sense legislation.
A Bill to leave the ECHR and finally get control of our borders. A Bill to drill our own oil and gas and bring down energy bills. A Bill to reform welfare and get people back to work.
And more than ten other Bills ready to go if the Conservatives were in government.
I know what needs to change. More importantly, I know how to do it and I have taken the time to do the work so that it actually happens.
Today, the Conservative Party is the only party offering the common sense reforms needed to get Britain working again and keep our country united.
Everyone else is offering division. Britain deserves better than that.
