It never rains but it pelts down. That must have been the thought running through the Prime Minister’s mind over the calamitous events of the past week or two.

She was already up to her neck in Brexit and the fall-out from Philip Hammond’s controversial Budget, (where is all the money coming from?) when she found herself confronted by a hugely embarrassing ministerial resignation on her doorstep.

This was far more serious than a run-of-the-mill resignation. Tracey Crouch quit as Sports Minister over the Government’s delay in implementing a severe crackdown on fixed-odds betting machines, where you can currently stake up to £100 every 20 seconds. The plan is that this should be reduced to £2.

Crouch’s resignation has brought support for her, not merely from some Tory colleagues at Westminster but from MPs of opposition parties, too.

The scale of the criticism on this issue has certainly shocked the Government, although May has said there has been no delay.

But in the opinion of a furious Crouch and her supporters, this is hard to swallow.

There is no appetite for a nanny state, but it is certainly a fact that gambling addicts do need some protection afforded by the state. We will soon see whether the state is listening.

By all accounts, Sir Keir Starmer, shadow Brexit Secretary, is embarrassed by or ashamed of his knighthood. It is certainly true the title of the former head of the Criminal Prosecution Service does not sit comfortably on the Opposition front bench.

However, it has been reported he approached the editor of Hansard, the Official Report of the House of Commons, to ask if he would kindly drop the “Sir” in references to him. I trust the Hansard editor, a stickler for total accuracy, will ignore this request which sounds to me like a blatant act of reverse snobbery.

This hugely experienced Queen’s Counsel and human rights lawyer has been around long enough, I would have thought, to be aware that you cannot be Sir Keir one day and plain Joe Bloggs the next, whenever it suits you.

If he was so seriously worried about giving the impression he was something a bit superior to the common herd, why did he simply not reject the accolade at the time it was offered to him? In short, get over it.