THE Eagle has landed, but what exactly has she landed herself into?
Just 24 hours into her Labour leadership challenge, Wallasey MP Angela Eagle was facing the furies of a party on the brink of chaos.
Threats of violence, a window pane smashed overnight at her Liscard office, phones reportedy taken off the hook by her staff after a torrent of abusive calls.
In the fast moving theatre of politics, Eagle has now officially launched her bid to become the next Labour leader.
But in doing so she has estranged herself from her own constituency Labour Party and next Friday faces a vote of no confidence in her own ranks - their numbers having quadrupled in three weeks to more than 1,200.
There are some people who are making a noise but they are a tiny minority of people, who were thrown out in the 1990s, who have come back. I can cope with that
With feelings running high elsewhere, 16,000 people have signed an online petition calling for her resignation.
Eagle's on-off-on-again campaign has put her squarely in the firing line as the civil war engulfing the party rages on.
Read: 'There’s still time for Jeremy to back down and see sense'
Just a few weeks ago her voice was tremulous on the radio as she discussed why she had joined the shock exodus of shadow cabinet members who walked out on leader Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow chancellor, John McDonnell.
Yesterday, explaining why she had decided to challenge the man who made her his Shadow First Secretary of State, effectively his stand-in when he was unavailable, Eagle said: "A kinder politics must be a reality, not just a slogan,” adding that she was neither a Blairite or a Brownite, adding "I am my own woman.”
On the launch day of her challenge, Eagle could not claim ownership of either her press conference or her social media campaign page so certainly.
Journalists made for the door upon hearing that, just down the road, Andrea Leadsom was backing out of the Tory leadership race.
Meanwhile, on Eagle's Facebook page, a rallying post was hijacked by tens of thousands pro-Corbyn hashtags - an indicator of what is likely to be a scrappy fight.
Next Friday (July 22), Wallasey CLP is to meet, and one of the items on the agenda will be a proposal for a vote of no confidence in its MP.
Last week the Wallasey branch of the CLP passed, with an overwhelming majority, a motion of support for Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party .
“As such we wish to send our message of support to our Leader Jeremy Corbyn at this time as we work together on the larger issues affecting our society,” said the branch’s social media platform.
Read: Biggest political rally in generation as Liverpool greets Corbyn
Yesterday, at her leadership contest launch, Eagle dismissed the tension back on Merseyside: “There are some people who are making a noise, but they are a tiny minority of people who were thrown out in the 1990s, who have come back. I can cope with that.”
Labour’s NEC voted in secret last night and decided Jeremy Corbyn’s name would automatically go onto the ballot paper in a leadership challenge after a knife-edge day with legal threats abounding.
Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey had warned his exclusion from the ballot would bestow on the party a “mark of infamy” for mounting a “squalid coup”.
Eagle retorted: “To be honest, Len sounds a bit like he’s gone to too many am-dram performances”.
Perhaps she could have used the word pantomime to describe the events that followed: in an item not on the agenda, the NEC meeting ruled that none of the hundreds of thousands of people who have become Labour Party members in the last six months will be eligible to vote in the contest. And those £3 supporters from last summer? They will have to cough up £25 in the next two days if they want their voices heard again.
"A fair price for democracy," Eagle declared.
Eagle has ignited the fuse paper that either saves the party or sees it explode.
Take your seats, then, for a tense Act Three.
'It's bullying, it has absolutely no place in politics'
JEREMY Corbyn called for calm
following the incidents in Liscard today.
"It is extremely concerning that Angela Eagle has been the victim of a
threatening act and that other MPs are receiving abuse and threats," he said.
"As someone who has also received death threats this week and previously, I am calling on all Labour Party members and supporters to act with calm and treat each other with respect and dignity,
even where there is disagreement.
"I utterly condemn any violence or threats, which undermine the democracy within our party and have no place in our politics."
But Angela Eagle was seemingly unimpressed and urged him "to get control of the people who are supporting him and make certain that this behaviour stops".
"This isn't the kinder, gentler politics that we were promised".
She added: "It's bullying, it has absolutely no place in politics in the UK and it needs to end."
In the aftermath of the attempted coup, the leadership no confidence vote and the Cameron-led Commons jeering of a fortnight ago, the Corbyn camp might have been minded to say the same.
*This article was updated on July 12 to take account of the NEC ruling on ballot inclusion and voter exclusion.
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