Since Keir Starmer launched his campaign to be Labour leader, his team has been dogged by a rumour that refuses to die. Staff have had to make more phone calls rebutting this falsehood than any other. It’s that two of his senior staffers, Kat and Simon Fletcher, are husband and wife or brother and sister. The misconception has even spread to the parliamentary party: one Labour MP recently congratulated the pair on their wedding. The reason for the confusion is simple. Not only do the Fletchers share a surname but their CVs have the same high watermark: their crucial role in Jeremy Corbyn’s first campaign for the Labour leadership.

From the party’s traditional right, Starmer has hired Matt Pound, who as national organiser for the