Chris Mason: Why a coffee is overshadowing the King's Speech

Chris Mason: Why a coffee is overshadowing the King's Speech5 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleChris MasonPolitical editorReutersIt is quite something when two blokes having a cup of coffee can generate more headlines and conversation than the King coming to parliament for the main ceremonial event of the parliamentary calendar.Both these things are happening this morning. The prime minister has met the Health Secretary Wes Streeting in private – a meeting offered by Sir Keir Starmer to cabinet ministers after Tuesday's cabinet meeting and an offer Streeting took up.It was a very short meeting - under 20 minutes - and we may not know what happened in Number 10 immediately.And then, not long afterwards, the King will arrive in Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament, in which the sovereign reads out the government's planned new laws for the year and a bit ahead.This ceremonial occasion was scheduled for this week precisely because government figures anticipated a rough set of election results and a splash of political tumult afterwards. They certainly got that bit right.They hoped it would help the prime minister to relaunch, reset and reboot his premiership, again – and would keep MPs away from Westminster and so make plotting harder for a few days because the Commons doesn't sit just before the King's Speech. Well, there's been no shortage of plotting.Follow live: Keir Starmer latestStarmer prepares for King's Speech as he faces leadership crisisThe potential challengers to Keir StarmerSo where are we right now? In something of an awkward holding position. The prime minister's authority has been repeatedly pulverised, but no contender has come forward with the 81 MPs needed for a leadership challenge and the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has not yet found himself a parliamentary seat to contest."Wes doesn't have the numbers and Andy doesn't have a seat, for all this noise,"...