This scandal will end at the door of Brown

Smeargate is not going away just yet and Rachel Sylvester in the Times this morning writes that the McBride e-mail scandal follows a familiar pattern — the brutal and relentless undermining of opponents and rivals.

She describes the Prime Minister as

as well as waving his moral compass, he has always wielded a dagger and surrounded himself with thugs who are not afraid to use it on his behalf. Ministers speak of there being a split between “good Gordon” and “bad Gordon” and when the Prime Minister feels vulnerable it is Mr Hyde who triumphs over Dr Jekyll.

What starting as a blogging spat could turn be turning out to be the final nail in the coffin of New Labour.

This I feel will reverberate a lot more at the door of the Prime Minister.