Let’s start with the prime minister kicking out four MPs this week after they had objected to various Labour plans and proposals.

But if Sir Keir really felt in control of his party, why did he need to bother about a group of MPs that wouldn’t even fill a family saloon? And why did he do it, just days before accepting some of the logic of one of those he kicked out, Chris Hinchcliff, over tweaks to proposed planning laws?

Bemused? You wouldn’t be the only one.

Sir Keir’s allies say he always believed there would have to be repercussions for MPs who plot against the government repeatedly, in part because others are asked to defend decisions that might be unpopular or difficult.

So after the welfare fiasco, the whips were asked to make a list of those who had been actively trying to organise resistance to government plans, rather than just expressing objections.

After gathering evidence about MPs’ behaviour, those four were then shown the door, at least for now, to exert discipline over the backbenches.

A senior government figure said: “You can have as big a majority as you want, but if you have no discipline whatsoever it can get chaotic. You can’t get chaotic at a time when the country desperately needs its government to get on with things.”

It was a separate decision to suspend Diane Abbott – again, a choice made by Labour HQ who felt it had no choice but to act, interpreting her comments as repeating a claim that Jewish people don’t experience racism in the same way as black people.

So, “behave – or else”, is the message to the rest of the backbenches, just when they are about to leave Westminster.

But have the moves this week made a difference? One senior MP said: “A lot of people keep wondering, ‘Is Keir beholden to his back benches?’ I don’t think people are like, ‘Oh we’re going to rebel if we’re unhappy all the time’. But there has to be more respect for MPs who are actually out talking to their constituents.”

Another senior Labour figure told me, “No 10 was completely spooked by what happened over welfare – I don’t think backbenchers are running it, but they do have a taste for power.”