Quaking in their boots

I am sure that Labour supporters may well be horrified when they see the front of the Sunday Times this morning.

The paper carries a report that Gordon is making secret plans to stay on as Labour leader after the general election even if his party is defeated.

According to what the paper describes as close sources

Gordon has said he believes his enemies in the party are too divided among themselves to force him out,” said a senior Labour source.
“He thinks that if the May election is indecisive and if there is any prospect of a second election, Labour should not be plunged immediately into a messy leadership contest.”

Alan Johnson-Gordon will be with us until 2017

This week's New Statesman carries an interview with Alan Johnson who appears to predict that Gordon Brown will be with us for another eight years.

“When Gordon steps down after ten years of successful leadership I’ll be too old anyway.

” he tells Gloria De Piero.

But as the writer says the

comments suggest that Johnson supports Brown but would stand if the PM were deposed

Why the plot failed against Brown

Allegra Stratton has a fascinating account of how the plot against Gordon Brown failed in the Guardian this morning.

There were many twists and turns over the course of the week but it finally fell down on Monday evening.

On Monday at 3pm the rebels met. All their info was collated on a five-page spreadsheet across which names, mobile phone numbers, "other telephone numbers" and personal non-parliamentary email addresses were set out horizontally along with the initials of the rebel MP who had brought them on board and vouched for them.
Zealots who wanted Brown out were given the number zero and those newly persuaded the number one. Zero zealots made up most of the first page; ones extended onto the second and together they came to 54. Short of the 71 crucial figure but over the 50 they had briefed journalists would trigger publication.
But they decided that evening to perform a u-turn and announced they would not go public.

Is history repeating

You may recall that during the plot to topple Mrs Thatcher,John Major had a very fortunate excuse not to be around.He had his wisdom teeth out.

Well fast forward 19 years and another nice guy who has been fairly quiet in the Labour is away from Westminster.

As Paul Waugh reports

Ed Miliband has the perfect excuse to be away from all the intrigue at Westminster - he has become a dad for the first time.
Miliband junior is a healthy baby boy, weighing in at a healthy 7lbs on Tuesday. He and Mr Miliband's partner, Justine Thornton, are both doing well.
The big event was confirmed at Energy and Climate Change questions in the Commons today, when Mike O'Brien and Joan Ruddock stood in for the Secretary of State.

No future,no vision and no support

Whilst all the papers are full of government meltdown it is perhaps the Guardian's editorial that Gordon Brown should be most worried about.

The nation needs someone who answers this description to lead it now, just as Labour needs to find someone who is able to set out a case for progressive government.

It's worth looking at what the paper argues.

Firstly that the Prime Minister has missed his chance

Although he still purports to be a radical, he has adopted the caution of an establishment man. He cannot lead a revolution against his own way of doing government, and yet a revolution is necessary.

Secondly that he has no plan

The truth is that there is no vision from him, no plan, no argument for the future and no support. The public see it. His party sees it. The cabinet must see it too, although they are not yet bold enough to say so.

and

Great causes win the day when people fight for them. A year of lingering emptiness beckons instead. Parliament is treading water; little is happening beyond the discredited attempt to sell off part of Royal Mail.
This is a damning editorial for the Prime Minister and it may be the catalyst for change after Friday

Odds for a reshuffle on Friday

Interesting snippet from James Forsyth over at Coffee House who reveals that

the word is that Gordon Brown will reshuffle the Cabinet on Friday as the local election results come in. The thinking is that this will distract attention from the results, allow Labour to claim that the European election results on Sunday are a verdict on the past Cabinet not this one and, most crucially, to make it harder for any plot to get off the ground.

James goes on to say though that even this will be enveloped in chaos as

Friday will be one of those days when no one knows what is going to happen. It could end with Brown having pulled off a reshuffle and stymied the plotters or with Ministers resigning on air and saying Labour needs a new leader.

Johnson draws a line in the sand

It seems clear to me that Alan Johnson has placed a flag in the sand over his prospects for the leadership of the Labour party with his interview in this morning's Times.

Despite the fact that those close to home say it is not intended as a challenge to Gordon Brown,his article setting out the fundamentals of changing the political climate must be seen as the start of a post Brown Labour landscape.

Peter Hoskin writing on Coffee House this morning says that

While Johnson makes sure to mention Gordon Brown is his article ("Again the Prime Minister is leading..."), the measures he outlines are too strident, and the topic too important, for this to be anything other than an attempt to grab the limelight. And while I'm not struck by Johnson's proposed solution - a tweaked version of proportional representation - there are certainly benefits to running on this kind of platform.

Last year take tw0 or Groundhog day

For the Economist's Bagehot who says

It is at once tantalising and wearyingly familiar. The rumours of plots and stalking horses; the questions about whether it is better or worse for the Tories if Mr Brown goes; the speculation about the fall-out of poor election results; the chuntering backbenchers and not very coded swipes from a few current ministers and the odd retired one; the hows and the whos (the contention that no Labour figure would want the top job in these dire circumstances has always struck me as the worst reason for Mr Brown to feel safe: these are politicians we are talking about, after all); the debate about whether a new Labour leader would be obliged to call an early general election: it is an almost exact re-run of what happened last year.

Johnson for next leader

Possibly premature but a Politics Home survey has come up with the conclusion that

Alan Johnson would be the Labour leader who would represent the greatest threat to the Tories should Gordon Brown be replaced before the next election.

adding that

70 per cent - of the 100 MPs and political journalists interviewed - thought the health secretary would be right for the job.

Perhaps more interestingly though Ed Balls got no votes at all and there were signs of diminsihing returns for David Miliband and Harriet Harman

Is Hain making a leadership bid?

Former Cabinet minister Peter Hain's comments in the Independent on Sunday will be no doubt seen as further evidence of a growing movement within the party to replace Gordon Brown in the run up to next year's election.

Under the headline,Gordon, you are without a narrative,Hain says that

because Cameron's Tories do not actually offer the progressive change

there s still an opportunity for the Labour party to set the agenda however there is a problem

Despite Gordon Brown's best efforts, Labour has not had a clear enough narrative right across government. Ministers have developed a habit of making technocratic speeches where the very purpose of Labour gets lost

The article does not directly criticize Brown but the intention is surely laid bare.So is Hain suggesting that he is the beacon to carry the party to 2010 and beyond