In broadcasting no good news ever followed a sentence beginning, “If you are just waking up …”.

Variations on that ominous intro duly found their way into the scripts of the Sunday morning politics shows yesterday as the West did indeed open its eyes to find Iran had launched a direct attack on Israel overnight. The unthinkable had become reality.

With the global settlement upended again there was nothing else for producers to do but tear up the running order and the list of questions as planned. Or maybe save them into a folder marked “pending”. The stories and personalities that were set to dominate post-recess politics have not gone away, much as some of the main players might wish them to. They are just not as important as they may have seemed 24 hours previously.

Before Sunday, most Tory MPs had similar items at the top of their to do lists: survive the general election, or find a new perch, and before you go, topple Angela Rayner. Many were surprised by the announcement that police were investigating an alleged breach of electoral law relating to Labour’s deputy leader before she became an MP. Sure, it was a minor earthquake compared to the goings on in Scottish politics in the last year, but the tremors registered.

Each new development brings trouble closer to Keir Starmer’s door. Several papers yesterday reported a claim by a former adviser to Rayner that her main home was not the one registered on the electoral roll.

The party’s deputy leader says she will quit if she is found to have committed a crime. She insists that she “followed the rules at all times”.

The “two homes” row is a messy, many-stranded story that has taken a while to cut through to voters outside the Westminister bubble. But it has been building a head of steam lately, more so since Sir Keir Starmer said he has “full confidence” in his deputy, despite not seeing the tax and legal advice Rayner says she relied upon at the time.

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The argument over Rayner and her past living arrangements found its way into the Sunday politics shows. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said her colleague was “very keen” to talk to police.

“It allows her to set out all the facts – not the sort of gossip, not the different allegations that we’ve had from Conservative MPs.”

In a further sign that the story still has a way to run, the media are now being dragged in. On BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, a guest criticised the presenter for the amount of time spent on the row when Cooper had been there to talk about increasing violence against women and girls.

Asked by Kuenssberg how the party was handling the accusations against Rayner, the writer and Labour supporter John O’Farrell said it was a “ridiculous non-story” and “a bit of gossip” that Kuenssberg, and the BBC in general, should not feel obliged to keep reporting.

“It’s not a story just because the Mail says it is a story,” he said.

Kuenssberg said a lot of viewers would not regard Greater Manchester Police as “a bunch of pussycats who just investigate something because a Tory MP tells them to”.

It was an awkward exchange that brought to mind the show’s debut, when comedian and prankster Joe Lycett mocked fellow guest Liz Truss, much to the embarrassment of the BBC.

Those interested will have to wait until tomorrow to see if Lycett’s spoof has made it into Truss’s new book, Ten Years to Save the West. Some of the former prime minister's thoughts have already found their way into print. 

Thus far there is nothing much to worry Downing Street. What remains is a reminder, if required, of why Truss should never have been allowed anywhere near the job of prime minister. In early extracts she complains about not having a hairdresser and make-up artist on staff, problems having her Ocado shopping re-routed from home to Number 10, and how she listened to power tracks from Queen and Whitney Houston as motivational tools before the TV debates.

Her central plea is that she was not to blame for crashing the UK economy. Instead, to paraphrase Kenneth Williams in Carry on Cleo, it was a case of infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me - the “they” in question being everyone from the Bank of England to her fellow Tories.

The media did her no favours either, apparently. “Broadcasters and press alike struggled to find economists and commentators who could explain what we were trying to do,” she writes. I’ll bet they did. More revelations are promised today, including the King’s response to Truss resigning so soon.

The timing of Truss’s book is unusual. Political memoirs are usually published around party conference time, when authors can count on a receptive audience to hand over their cash.

Truss’s book goes on sale just before the local council and mayoral elections in England, and the “red wall” Blackpool South by-election, all widely expected to be disastrous for Rishi Sunak.

If there is to be a leadership move against the prime minister it would have to be around this time or never. Not that Truss’s opinions hold much sway with the bulk of Tory MPs. They would rather she spent more time in America carving out a future on the right-wing lecture circuit than reminding voters about her time in office.

The coming week in Westminster and at Holyrood is now set to be very different from the one many could have envisaged. There will be no leisurely settling down to another term filled with not very much to do bar wait for a general election.

Previous tasks remain. The UK government has a smoking ban to pass and a Rwanda policy to be patched up, again. Here, the hate crimes row rumbles on. But the first business of governments north and south of the border will be making statements on what is happening elsewhere. Normal business, petty and party political as ever, will resume in time - just not yet.