A day and another knock to the Prime Minister’s authority. The Government is facing another crisis of its own making.

Now it’s the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s long-awaited guidance on single-sex spaces, a legal ruling that ministers received almost three months ago but have failed to publish.

This is not an isolated incident or a bureaucratic hiccup. It’s the latest evidence that the Prime Minister and the Government simply cannot govern.

Decision-making is stymied by a lack of political authority. They have burnt through their political capital.

Public services, councils, NHS trusts, and businesses need clarity after the Supreme Court ruled that sex and the Equality Act means biological sex.

But the Government has done nothing. Whitehall officials have already begun leaking the guidance out because they believe Labour is deliberately delaying publication to avoid a political backlash from its own backbenches.

When civil servants stray, it’s a clear sign that the Prime Minister is not in control.

The Equalities Minister and also Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, says she is taking her time to get it right.

Sounds just like Humphrey Appleby’s approach, but others insist there is no deadline. The public is told guidance must be implemented in full and at all levels, despite Government lawyers arguing otherwise in court.

This is a Government chasing its own tail, going round in circles because it cannot decide which form of rebellion it fears the most, from the left or from the right.

Ministers, devoid of political capital, are using hesitation and delay tactics in the hope that the issue goes away, and the cost of their indecision is affecting the country.

Women’s groups, domestic violence services, rape crisis centres, and businesses need and want clarity.

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NHS trusts and local authorities are caught in limbo between the Supreme Court ruling and the Government’s refusal to decide and issue the guidance.

This is not leadership. It’s the latest sign of a Prime Minister in office, but not in power. A week before the Budget, we’ve seen leaks, reversals, and a fictional black hole that changes daily, and attempts to tackle the immigration crisis have been met with immediate internal opposition.

Promises made on Government spending have been reversed almost immediately, with the government fighting its own internal divisions, leaving no time for the business of Government.

The latest failure of the guidance exposes the governing party that cannot decide, a Government that has lost the confidence of the public, its MPs, and officials.

And today, after rumours of a coup by Wes Streeting emerging from Downing Street last week, Andy Burnham has returned to the front line, refusing to rule out a leadership bid.

This leaves policymaking in limbo, with the Prime Minister imitating the cat in the adage as he “lets I dare not wait upon, I would.”

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