If Downing Street aides thought Wes Streeting was going to quietly swear loyalty to Sir Keir Starmer on the morning media round after some extraordinary briefing against him they were badly mistaken.
In fact, their apparent ploy to call out suspected plotting to oust the Prime Minister may have badly backfired.
The coming days will show whether they have quashed dissent, at least temporarily, or ignited a growing revolt.
The ambitious Health Secretary strongly denied that he was manoeuvring to topple Sir Keir, though at times stopped short of totally ruling out a challenge at some stage.
As he hopped between TV and radio studios, he became increasingly pugnacious in his attacks on No10 insiders who had briefed against him.
Early on, he accused them of trying to “kneecap” him and of “self-defeating and self-destructive behaviour” by shining the spotlight on Labour infighting, distracting from the Government’s message on improving the NHS and other public services.
His hit-back turned to near-mockery when later asked on BBC Breakfast: “Are you a Faithful or are you a Traitor?”
He responded, stressing he was a Faithful: “Someone has definitely been watching too much Celebrity Traitors in Downing Street, they should swap it for CountryFile in future and calm down a bit.”
Scathingly, he later condemned the “silly No 10 briefer”, adding: “It stops us getting a Labour argument across, and that’s why it’s not just juvenile, it’s self-defeating.”
Brought up in the East End of London, Mr Streeting, 42, was unlikely to shy away from a political street fight.
Afterall, his maternal grandfather Bill Crowley was an armed robber who knew the Kray Twins, according to Mr Streeting’s autobiography.
Mr Streeting was the first in his family to graduate from university, studying history at Cambridge before becoming president of the National Union of Students, holding various posts in the voluntary and public sectors, and becoming Deputy Leader of Redbridge Council.
The MP for Ilford North since 2015, who held onto the seat with a majority of just 528 at last year’s General Election, is a stronger media performer and more charismatic than Sir Keir.
The No10 aides gave him a platform to show this which the Blairite MP seized with both hands.
But can Mr Streeting deliver?
On this the jury is very much out.
Labour’s flagship pledge is to cut NHS waiting lists, 7.6 million when it took power last summer, with billions more being poured into the health service to help it to recover after the Covid pandemic.
But hospital waiting lists in England, after an initial fall, have now risen for the third month in a row, reaching 7.41 million in August, up from 7.36 million in May.
The proportion of patients having to wait longer than the target time of 18 weeks is also up despite the fact that the NHS will be getting an extra £29 billion a year above inflation by 2028-29.
Mr Streeting has also failed to resolve the dispute with junior (resident) doctors, with the latest walk-out set to run from 7am on Friday 14 November to 7am on Wednesday 19 November.
He is not the only Cabinet minister failing to deliver key pledges.
The Government appears a million miles from its target to build 1.5 million more homes this Parliament.
The economy is also still doing little more than flatlining with dismal growth and Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to launch another tax raid running into tens of billions of pounds with London and the South East set to be hardest hit.
If Labour is unable to deliver on its key promises, particularly on the NHS and the economy, then it faces a huge task wooing voters at the next General Election, expected in 2029.
So while Mr Streeting may talk a good game, he’s yet to match that with delivery in Government.
