Trevor Phillips likes his charts and stats on a Sunday morning, and this one was a showstopper. Since Keir Starmer became Prime Minister in July, the Labour government has launched more than 60 policy reviews - one every two and a half days.

That is almost the same number of times Pat McFadden has given up his Sunday mornings to tour the broadcast studios and fight Downing Street’s corner. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but the Scottish MP for Wolverhampton South East certainly has a tendency to rock up when the going gets tough for his boss, which turns out to be rather a lot. And it is being noticed.

Diane Abbott, a panellist on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (this week with Victoria Derbyshire presenting), described McFadden as a “recycled Blairite” who was always wheeled out when the leadership had a problem.

Fellow panellist and former MP Craig Mackinlay agreed. “Bringing Pat McFadden out is usually an indicator that things are going off the rails.”

McFadden continues to get the gig of Starmer's wartime consigliere because thus far he has done it rather well. Also in his favour, no one else is rushing forward to take his place.

Among the items on the McFadden dance card this time were the resignation of Transport Secretary Louise Haigh last week, and the launch/relaunch of Labour’s plans for government this week.

Haigh’s departure continues to cause puzzlement inside and outside Westminister. The story broke late on Thursday and was quickly overtaken by the assisted dying bill. Now more questions are surfacing.

Haigh had told Keir Starmer about a past fraud offence involving a work phone before she joined the Shadow Cabinet, far less the Cabinet, so why did she have to go?

Phillips asked if the Prime Minister had known the whole story. McFadden said he did not know who knew what and when, he only knew “what I read in the newspapers”. The same answer was given to Derbyshire, though she wondered why he could not have checked before coming on the programme. A fully briefed Minister on a Sunday show? Where would be the deniability in that?

Appearing on Phillips’ show, Telegraph columnist Fraser Nelson thought Haigh’s resignation would be like Peter Mandelson’s in 1997: since she had gone quickly she could come back quickly. Mandelson, of course, returned only to be forced to resign again in 2001.

Before McFadden’s interview, the BBC One show turned to one of the day’s other main stories: the allegations against MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace. After coverage appeared in the Sunday papers, Wallace issued a statement on Instagram saying the complaints came from “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”. Among those who have come forward are Scottish broadcasters Aasmah Mir and Kirsty Wark. Mir complained to the BBC in 2017, telling the corporation, “This must not happen again to another woman.”

Diane Abbott MP said the video showed “Gregg doesn’t get it”, adding that “the world has moved on”.

Fellow panellist and chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wondered if it had been wise to post the statement.

“I understand the instinct when you feel you’re backed in a corner, but I don’t think it’s smart to come talking like that when at the moments he should probably be listening,” he said.

In her introduction at the top of the programme, Derbyshire said there were “fresh questions for the BBC” over its handling of the allegations. But in the event no one appeared for the corporation. Instead, a statement was read by Derbyshire saying the BBC took any issues raised with it seriously, and it had “robust” processes in place to deal with them.

The matter dealt with - for now anyway - it was on to McFadden and the Prime Minister’s “Plan for Change” speech on Thursday.

Asked by Derbyshire whether the announcement would be a “bit of a reset” following anger over the Budget and Louise Haigh’s resignation, Mr McFadden said: “No. We’ve been working on this since the early days of government.”

Nor was it a distraction from the rows over freebies, he added. “We knew that government would always have events that buffet you around from week to week and things that would cause a lot of heat in the newspapers, you have to deal with those. But alongside those you have to look at the long-term too.”

Despite coming in to talk about the setting of government targets, the minister was giving away little to no detail on specifics. “We’re not going to have a numerical target for net migration,” he said, “but we are going to make sure that we do more to train our own workforce and do more to get long-term sick people off benefits and into work”.

From missing mobile phones to absent migration targets it had been another wide-ranging wander along the tame shores of British politics. A different, more out-of-this-world political landscape is on show in Rumours, Cate Blanchett’s new film.

The double Oscar-winner had been interviewed earlier by Kuenssberg about the comedy-horror. Blanchett plays one of a group of world leaders who go off on a rural retreat to talk business. But before they can solve the world’s problems the prime ministers and presidents must survive nights of terror featuring zombies, monsters, and a giant (female) brain.

After its Cannes premiere in May, one critic described Rumours as “Night of the Living Dead meets Dr Strangelove”, while The Hollywood Reporter declared it “a hoot”.

The politicians in the film are forced to go without their usual privileges, said Blanchett. “The structures that make them world leaders evaporate incredibly quickly. They have no cellphone reception, suddenly their aides are gone, they have no one providing dinner or a second glass of wine. So what you witness is they don’t know who they are.”

Besides Blanchett as German Chancellor Hilda Ortmann, Nikki Amuka-Bird plays Cardosa Dewindt, the UK Prime Minister. In a move sure to flatter both the incumbent and the man waiting impatiently in the wings, Charles Dance plays the US president.