Government falling apart as the wheels come off

Jacqui Smith is rumoured to be leaving the cabinet.

Downing Street are calling it pure speculation but the BBC are saying that it has been confirmed by Westminster sources.

Did she jump or was she pushed?

Make no mistake this is a serious day for the Prime Minister.The home secretary is one of the grand offices of state and to be forced out either by the expenses scandal or maybe pure incompetence is a devastating blow.

On top of this three more Labour MP's have announced that they are stepping down.One David Chayter as a result of expenses,the others Beverley Hughes and Patricia Hewitt look like they are deserting a sinking ship.

It seems strange for both of these to announce their stepping down during this most difficult week for Labour.

Harriet Harman is currently on the World at One trying to plaster over the cracks and not doing a very good job.

Now it seems that the door is open for Ed Balls to get the keys to No 11 and Alistair Darling to go to the Home Office.

More on Harriet

Andrew Pierce's piece in the Telegraph may well lay bare the myth that Harriet Harman is angling for the top job.

According to Pierce

Few people, apart from Harman and her ruthlessly ambitious husband Jack Dromey, the deputy general secretary of the Transport & General Workers’ Union, believe it is possible she can succeed Brown.

Not least the PM himself who according to insider sources

he does not believe reports that she is jockeying for position – not because he believes she is devoted to his cause, but because “he just thinks it’s preposterous anyone could even consider Harriet could lead anything”.

and reminds us how when her election as deputy was announced many delegates held their heads in their hands

Harman planning a cue

This morning's Independent claims that deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman is planning a strategy to take over from Gordon Brown when the Prime Minister is finally toppled.

According to an article by Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor

Last week Ms Harman launched an outspoken attack in a cabinet meeting on the culture of greed in the City, calling for a retrospective clawback of the bonuses paid to executives in banks bailed out by the taxpayer.

and he adds that

Her comments, which rapidly became public, put her at odds with colleagues who argued that bankers’ contracts could not be torn up and that such action would wreck Labour’s reputation for being business-friendly. It also went far beyond Mr Brown’s preference for a clamp down on future bonuses rather than those that have already been paid.

With a run of disastrous polls it is not sup rising that the senior members of the party are looking to a post election future.

It is becoming highly unlikely that the next Labour leader will be Prime Minister but the attractions of Harman playing the Michael Howard role must seem attractive to the party whilst new blood rises through the ranks

First Darling now Harriet's on the offensive

Another remarkable intervention from a cabinet member this morning.A week after Alistair Darling's appearance in the Guardian,Harriet Harman pops up in the Times which reports that she

Ms Harman admits that the Government is suffering badly from the downturn. “When people feel that their lives are more of a struggle than they used to be, then that expresses itself in dissatisfaction with the Government

and continues

“The main reason why we are low in the polls is because people are facing difficult circumstances.” The Chancellor was, she believes, right to suggest that the global economic situation is worse than it has been for 60 years. “I could not disagree with anything that he said,” she said. “It is a very major external economic shock because of the coming together of the credit crunch and food and oil prices. We have got to act, and our actions have got to be particularly focused on those who cannot sit out the recession.”

She also adds as did Darling that the party has failed to get its mesaage across

“We have had to say something different from what we have been saying for the past ten years. We have had a message, which is, ‘Unemployment is getting lower, GDP is rising, you are continuing to feel that your prospects are sound' - and that last bit has changed. We need to have a different conversation with the country now.”

However one consoltain for Brown is that she thinks a new leader would be a distraction.
Some consulation you might feel in a week when the message again did not get across and the economic indicators continue to contradict his message.

Is Harriet positioning herself to take over?

There has been a great deal of talk about the possibilities of Harriet Harman lining herself up to take over from Gordon Brown in the event of a post Glasgow East putsch.

Now even that renowed panel at Politics home seem to agree that something is in the air

Harriet Harman is trying to position herself as a stand-in leader should Gordon Brown be forced out.
That's the strong conclusion of the PHI100, Britain's most authoritative survey of inside and expert political opinion, after the deputy leader's manoeuvring over the Glasgow East by-election.
Two thirds of the politically balanced panel (sixty seven per cent) agree that she is actively engaged in positioning herself in the event that the Prime Minister falls.

But it's not just the Phi 100 but also the Sun which says in this morning's paper that

DEPUTY Labour leader Harriet Harman is secretly campaigning to become Labour’s first woman PM if Gordon Brown is forced out of No 10.
She is privately sounding out MPs about her chances while Mr Brown is in Japan at the G8 summit.
Her allies believe the privately-educated MP can win back Middle England voters who have abandoned Labour.
They also claim she has greater public appeal than geeky Foreign Secretary David Miliband

And after all Iain Dale did spot her out to lunch with Jack Straw

Hats off to Harriet

So far from being grilled alive,Ms Harman came out of PMQ's in rather better shape than her opponent.

Rosa Prince describes it as

A barn-storming performance at PMQs today from Harriet Harman who, to the surprise of everyone, held her own against the Tories' top man, William Hague

.

Iain Dale comments that

She'd done her homework, prepared brilliantly and was able to counter some excellent put downs from William Hague with some wit of her own.

Peter Hoskin calls it

A bit of a damp squib, really. Harman held her own against those PMQs titans that are Hague and Cable. And all my anticipatory drooling was for nought.

So hats off to Harriet,perhaps Gordon should go away a bit more

Harriet to face William

Is the

Political betting has the odds of which will be the first question

William Winett expects fireworks

Expect a bloodbath

Rumours of a new opponent for Harriet

The question flying around the blogosphere at the moment is who is doing PMQ's tomorrow.

Gordon Brown is away so deputy Harriet Harman will be filling in although not with flak jacket.Vince Cable will be guesting as the Lib Dem representative but the Tories are not saying.The usual convention would be Wiliam Hague but Sam Coates thinks that maybe someone else may be guesting

Rather than William or Theresa or Francis, why not put up someone else, another high profile Tory looking for electoral success. Why don't they put up Boris?
He would be a surprise, would be guaranteed to generate headlines all day long, would thrill Tory MPs and demonstrate political deftness. He could benefit from showing some gravitas in the Commons, and his reputation would benefit from a slam dunk victory against Harriet Harman (if he manages it). And if he wants to be Mayor of London, he ought be able to as a couple of questions in front of the cameras like a leader.

Guido chips in as well

Repeated misleading references to Boris by Gordon Brown were the trigger for Cameron's decision to give Boris an unprecedented right of reply in the PM's absence. The last time a backbencher was given such an opportunity was during Asquith's time.
"Lets face it, Boris is better known than most of the shadow cabinet, this will give him a chance to show leadership, he will crush Harriet Harman at the dispatch box". Is this a high risk strategy? Not really, he is up against Harriet Harman...