Sir Keir Starmer is away, racking up the air miles at the Commonwealth summit in far-flung Samoa.
So Angela Rayner stepped in at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday for a last, nostalgic “battle of the gingers” against her Tory opposite Oliver Dowden.
It was the last PMQs before the Budget next week, and the deputy leaders tried to reprise their spirited old battles. But their hearts weren’t in it.
Instead, the Deputy PM made a heart sign to Mr Dowden, who was deputising for Rishi Sunak for the final time. They are preparing to step down on November 2.
Ms Rayner got in a cheeky dig about the July disaster that befell the Tories, noting Mr Dowden was a leading light behind persuading Mr Sunak to call an early election.
"And if his own side hasn't offered him a peerage, I certainly will,” she declared to her counterpart, who rolled his eyes upwards in mock resignation.
She added: “I will miss our exchanges - the battle of the gingers.”
Mr Sunak will be replaced by Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch, who will bring their own style to PMQs opposite Sir Keir. But who will they choose as their number two, to face off against Ms Rayner when the call comes?
No obvious ginger people come to mind on the Tory frontbench. Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins comes closest, in a certain light.
SNP leader Stephen Flynn, whose dark hair is now all gone, doesn’t get so much air time at PMQs these days after the Scottish nationalists suffered their own disaster in July. The Liberal Democrats, as the new third party, get a regular slot instead.
Mr Flynn took his less-frequent chance to flag up Donald Trump’s beef with Ms Rayner’s party, urging her to join him in a “spirit of cross-party working” and congratulate the “brave” Labour staffers volunteering to campaign for Kamala Harris.
“I’m loving this love-in,” the deputy PM replied, before stressing that any Labour personnel were campaigning “in their own time, with their own money”.
The US election takes place on November 5. Ms Rayner will learn then whether her new opposite number in Washington is Tim Walz for the Democrats or J.D. Vance for the Republicans.
That’s unless the result is disputed and things drag on, which could well be the case.
The Tory leadership election at least should come to a brutally decisive end, three days earlier, leaving Mr Dowden more time to contemplate his future, perhaps in the Lords if Ms Rayner’s hint is borne out.
