Over the past few weeks, talk of a potential coup against Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader has grown, with most expecting some sort of move from some section of the party in the summer. The chance of that move not dying the same embarrassing death as most Labour coups is still pretty slim, no matter how tough the plotters talk about the number of meetings they’ve had. But whatever happens with the official party leadership, there is already a serious coup underway in the party.

Dan Jarvis gave a speech to think tank Demos this morning which is being written up as part of his long-term bid to lead the Labour party. It was a serious speech about the economy, peppered with personal references and devoid of any mention of Jeremy Corbyn. In fact, when the Barnsley Central MP was forced to refer to the Labour leader by name in the question-and-answer session afterwards, the word ‘Jeremy’ came as a surprise, almost as though it didn’t belong in a serious discussion about economic policy and countering the Conservatives. Certainly Jarvis thinks the leadership is irrelevant enough not to have to mention anything it is doing in the run up to next week’s Budget, preferring instead to praise Rachel Reeves and Tom Watson for their work.

And this irrelevance of the leadership means that to write up Jarvis’s speech as just a pitch for the future is missing what he’s up to now. He and Reeves and other former frontbenchers are trying to take over the public face of the Labour party and its scrutiny function by giving serious speeches about the economy, pension reform, inequality and other big topics that Corbyn and John McDonnell might want to address but get little attention when they do because of the bigger problems - often of their own making - that beset the party. Of course, these interventions from Reeves et al get written up as pitching to be the person who takes over when the rest of the party finally gets its act together, but they also have a better chance of getting their points about those serious matters across, and of at least applying a little bit of pressure on the Tories, even if it is no stronger than fingertip pressure.

As for that leadership bid, Jarvis was clearly pitching to the soft left of the party, known by the organised plotters as the ‘nervous soft left’. These nervous MPs might agree with Jeremy Corbyn on a number of policies, but also worry about the party’s electability. And they are not going to lurch to supporting someone like Chuka Umunna. So Jarvis needed to speak in their language today, which he did, while also avoiding burning his bridges with any other wing of the party. In fact, he was still trying so hard to stay on the fence that Jarvis didn’t actually reveal very much more about what he thought. But he’s clearly thinking a lot about the future, and who he needs to support him.