This week has done nothing to calm speculation,the announcement ( or non announcement over his attendence at the Olympics,the high courts ruling over the SFO enquiry and the human rights ruling over British soldiers in Iraq.
All these are going to rebound on the PM.He was supposedly firmly behind Tony Blair over the cancellation of the Bae enquiry and as Chancellor his heavy hand must have waved over defence spending.
The 10p tax abolition has not gone away and this morning the papers have more rumblings from the back benches.
The Telegraph reports that
Gordon Brown is facing a fresh revolt by Labour MPs and unions, this time over his controversial proposals to "privatise" welfare policy.
It follows fresh evidence that the scheme is open to fraud and abuse by unscrupulous businessmen.
A powerful alliance of more than 40 backbenchers is to demand a rethink of the proposals, which would see private companies being "paid by results" for getting the jobless back to work.
The Mail claims
Gordon Brown risks a debilitating leadership crisis if Labour fails to make gains in the London and local elections on May 1, senior party figures have warned.
Anxious MPs believe the Prime Minister has less than three weeks either to "sort out" the political mess that has soured his premiership, or face an open party revolt.
The Mail has learned that a coalition of heavyweight backbenchers is ready to speak out publicly if - as many MPs now fear - Labour loses the London mayoral election to the Conservatives.
And the Ft this morning carries an interview with Tessa Jowell which though primarily is about Terminal 5 and the London mayoral campaign contains some undertones which will worry Gordon Brown
backbenchers have a job to provide a daily reality check for government, and I think it’s the job of government to take very seriously the specific issues that are raised by what are very far from being the usual suspects who will always rebel against the government. These are people who are very thoughtful and very considered in what they say, so I think they have to be taken very seriously.
So could the unthinkable happen if disaster looms on 1st May,Labour loses London and the local elections end in meltdown?
Bagehot's column in the Economist speculates that
Parliamentary revolts come and go. But this one is apparently matched by unease within government too. Mr Brown's team virulently denies talk of splits inside Number 10, and of rancour in the cabinet itself. It especially denies the rumour put about by a newspaper that Jack Straw, the justice secretary, once talked about punching Ed Balls, the schools secretary. Perhaps such lurid tales are apocryphal; but there has been an undeniable and telling trickle of interviews and editorials, from some government ministers as well as exiled Blairites, that implicitly testify to the unease. They tend to be blandly abstract and euphemistic, rambling airily about a need for new directions and clearer convictions, etc. They are less manifestos than alibis—designed to distance their authors from Mr Brown.
As James Forsyth points out over at Coffee House
Gordon Brown has only been Prime Minister for 289 days but already The Sun is devoting its main commentary slot to handicapping the race to succeed him. George Pascoe-Watson lists nine contenders—Ed Balls, David Miliband, James Purnell, Andy Burnham, Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman, Jacqui Smith, Jon Cruddas and Charles Clarke—giving Balls and Purnell particularly favourable write-ups.
And a telling piece in the Guardian this norning as Martin Kettle writes
A spectre is haunting the Labour party - the spectre of Gordon Brown's failure. Questions about Brown abound in Labour ranks. The concern is not, as far as I can tell from many conversations this week, primarily about Brown's policies or about the changes at No 10. The question is mainly about him. Right now, the problem is Brown himself.
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