Update: The plastic sheet has now fully fallen off and is lying on the floor. Very little sign of any activity to either stick it back on or fix the underlying problem.

Your Party latest - Jeremy Corbyn's backers "The Many" have secured control of the party's executive committee, winning 14 of the 24 seats on offer compared to 7 for Zarah Sultana's "Grassroots Left" slate. Both Corbyn and Sultana won seats, but fellow MPs Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan missed out.

36 today, and my annual reminder from Politico's Playbook that I share a birthday with, among others, Recep Erdogan.

Some late breaking news - New Zealand would also back removing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession, a spokesman for PM Christopher Luxon has said. Only 12 other Commonwealth realms to go…

Met Police confirm Peter Mandelson has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

A terrifying vision of the future of war ig.ft.com/ukraine-kill...

UK Government says it's working with the Trump admin to understand what the supreme court decision means for that trade deal Starmer signed last year, but they expect the UK's 'privileged' trading position to continue.

Think this is the fourth or fifth film I’ve now watched off the back of this podcast, and really Rob and Duncan should be getting commission from Virgin Media at this point.

In more orthodox Valentine’s activities, I made some duck for @sianelvin.bsky.social

Top game of rugby league at Oxford, made even better by Cambridge winning with a try in the last minute. What do you mean, “that’s not what Valentine’s Day is for”?

Ten teabags, Jeremy? TEN?

Can we get on with the “restoration and renewal” thing please?

Nice quiet late shift tonight then

Top views of Mt Fuji from the PM’s plane on the final leg of what I’m now calling his east Asia tour - meeting with PM Takaichi to come.

That’s the end of a very busy day of pool reporting from the main action of Starmer’s trip - meetings with Xi and Premier Li, a tour of the Forbidden City and a business forum where it all got a bit philosophical, the PM saying he wanted to “see the whole elephant” of China.

Keir inspects the troops at his ceremonial welcome to China. These lads were *tall*.

Wore my finest cufflinks to the big Xi Jinping meeting. The glamour of work travel.

From inside the big Xi-Starmer meeting at the Great Hall of the People. Xi urged Starmer to “press on with fortitude” in improving relations, noting “twists and turns” in recent years that had not served the interests of either country.

Greetings from Beijing, where Keir Starmer is kicking off the first visit to China by a British PM since 2018, telling business delegates he wants to help them seize the opportunities the country presents. Lots of red flags at the airport, too.

Pre-flight 26km (including some hills). Desperately hoping I sleep on this plane.

Ahead of Starmer's trip to China this week, I spoke to Lord Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, about how the PM should approach the visit. Very clear he needs to raise Jimmy Lai at the start of his meeting with Xi, and speak frankly. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Andy Burnham responds to the NEC decision to block his candidacy in Gorton and Denton:

Predictably, this has split Labour opinion - some MPs are saying the party can now move on from the "psychodrama", another tells me the decision is a "total shitshow" and the party could now lose Gorton and Denton.

It is true - Labour's NEC has blocked Andy Burnham from standing in Gorton and Denton. I'm told there was a very clear majority against allowing him to stand due to concerns about the cost of a mayoral by-election in Greater Manchester.

Today in AI can't count - a list of constituencies with four-letter names in which only one actually has four letters.

The real victim of the trend towards longer and longer constituency names: my intro's wordcount. Can the next by-election be for somewhere shorter?

I am given to understand this message follows a call earlier today in which Keir Starmer raised Trump's comments about NATO troops in Afghanistan directly with the president.

Latest from the Fabians- Sadiq Khan says Andy Burnham should be allowed to stand for election to Westminster if he wants to. Adds he would campaign for his fellow mayor and believes in teams using all the “talent” available to them.

I have infiltrated a meeting of the sinister society secretly running Britain (or whatever it is Twitter thinks the Fabians are).

Gorton and Denton by-election is on - Andrew Gwynne has resigned from the Commons/been appointed to the Manor of Northstead (pick your level of archaism). Not clear when it will happen though. No requirement to call a by-election right away, so could hold off until May 7?

Downing Street says Donald Trump was "wrong to diminish" to service of Nato and British forces in Afghanistan, in another example of a greater willingness to speak out against the president.

Yes, let’s wake up early after a late shift to run up hills in the wind and rain. Love marathon training.

From earlier - a member of the public has a suggestion for Pat McFadden.

A Frenchman in reflective sunglasses, is it? Think I’d be getting a bit jumpy if I was Algieria.

F1-style backdrop for Darren Jones, who is here to talk to us about civil service reform. Good luck keeping to that topic.

Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who arrived smoking a pipe, met Yvette Cooper earlier today, thanking her for the UK’s support on Greenland and urging allies combine forces against a common Russian enemy. I understand the meeting was arranged before this weekend’s developments.

Another Monday with the PM - clearly not happy with the US, but not clear what happens next other than being very keen to avoid a trade war.

If you want an illustration of how confusing it is to navigate Parliament, a maintenance man just asked me if we were on the first floor and I could not give him a definitive answer.

Not totally convinced by the new Night Manager - perfectly serviceable spy thriller, but it’s not Le Carré. It doesn’t seem to understand that, like spying itself, all his novels are fundamentally about betrayal.

Because my shift ended several hours ago, I’ve spent the last hour and a bit playing Alien: Isolation and making absolutely no progress. At this point, I’m genuinely not sure whether I’d have been better off with the press conference.

Why is the "live, laugh, love" Rose Garden sign getting all the stick, and not sub-Vegas "The Presidential Walk of Fame"?

Greenland's energy minister Naaja Nathanielsen has been in Westminster briefing MPs and journalists on US demands to annex the territory. Says an American invasion would be an attack against all Nato, and Greenland feels 'betrayed' by Donald Trump's rhetoric.

Just been called JD Vance on the Tube. Nightmare start to the late shift.

I think this is broadly right - difficult to see Ofcom leaping straight to the nuclear option without any intermediate stage of, say, a fine (even a heavy fine).

Meanwhile, a possible change in tone from Downing Street on whether the Government will keep using Twitter? No10 now saying it’s keeping its “participation” under review and “all options are on the table”.

Absolutely wore the wrong colour jumper for this morning’s pool job at IKEA - blending in far too much.

Don't we all have two thumbs?

Slow 14 miles to finish week one of training for this year’s London Marathon. Should you be feeling generous, please consider giving a few quid to Anthony Nolan for their life-saving work: 2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/christoph...

Also, Jesus Christ that’s a lot of new followers. Hello!

Profoundly worrying - especially the bit at the end of this Guardian article about the possibility of AI in social care. I wonder if therapy will go that way too - these people could clearly benefit from talking to a human about their problems, but maybe that’s too expensive/difficult?