James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
I have a sneaking feeling that the cabinet ministers Gordon Brown should be most worried about are Douglas Alexander and Des Browne. Both are former Brown loyalists who have been shabbily treated by their boss. If either of them turned on the PM, it would prove that this is not a Blairite plot or a Southern
Nick Robinson has some well-informed speculation up on his blog that David Cairns, the Minister of State at the Scotland Office, is the minister who is planning to resign. Cairns a friend of Siobhain McDonagh, who got this ball rolling.
Steve Richards declares that the “Labour Party is in the worst of all possible worlds” in his column this morning. It is hard to disagree with him. The actions of the rebels have brought the leadership question into the open and made it the dominant topic in political discourse yet there aren’t enough of them
There was a fascinating debate tonight, sponsored by the Evening Standard, about whether or not New Labour is doomed for defeat. James Purnell had drawn the short straw of being the Labour politician on the panel and in the circumstances he turned in a fine performance. But there were a couple of moments that caused
Spare a thought for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. Their conference, one of the best chances for them to get some proper coverage, is being over-shadowed by the banking crisis and the Labour leadership plotting. This is a pity as the Lib Dems seem to be trying to reposition themselves on the political spectrum.
The financial crisis has pushed the Labour leadership down the headlines, but there does seem to be a new consensus emerging that, although Brown will not be forced out now, the last few days have made his departure in the near-future far more likely. It has certainly put more pressure on his conference speech and
With Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy, Merill Lynch being sold to Bank of America for less than $30 a share and AIG seeking a bridging loan from the Federal Reserve it was a bloody Sunday for Wall Street. It remains to be seen if bloody Sunday will be followed by a black Monday but there
Watching David Miliband surrender all he gained over the summer, Labour rebels wound but not oust Brown and the Lib Dems having their conference overshadowed by Labour’s troubles it would be understandable if the Tories felt things were going just fine. But a close reading of today’s papers should jolt the Tories out of any
“I do support Gordon Brown” squealed David Miliband on the Politics Show just now. In an interview which was markedly different in style and tone from his confident performances during the summer after the publication of his Guardian article, Miliband backed away from a challenge, explicitly arguing against a leadership contest. When Jon Sopel challenged
If you haven’t seen it already, do watch Joan Ryan’s pitch-perfect call for a leadership election. She frames the issue, quite brilliantly, as one of party democracy. It will be very hard for the Brownites to depict her as a troublemaker or an egotist or to effectively rebut her argument. She is the one who
The plot against Brown is rumbling on, every few hours another MP is publicly joining the call for a leadership vote. It seems that the idea of a crowning a new leader has been abandoned and that there will be a contest if Gordon goes. Given the electoral college that Labour uses in its leadership
The rebellion does not appear to have taken off yet but neither has it been stamped out. If a senior Labour figure who is not regarded as one of the usual suspects were to join in the call for a contest that could be a trigger for a significant number of Labour MPs to move.
James Forsyth reviews the week in politics If Labour does dump Gordon Brown before the next election, then each of the three major parties will, this decade, have replaced a leader before he has had a chance to fight a general election. What used to be exceptional has become almost routine. This is a consequence
Siobhain McDonagh has become the first person to quit their payroll job in an attempt to force a leadership contest. If others are brave enough to follow her example, then the game really will be afoot. The Progress article by a dozen Blairite MPs which is scathingly critical of where and how Labour is being
It is great news that Neil O’Brien is the new director of Policy Exchange. Neil is one of the smartest and most decent people in Westminster and under his leadership Open Europe has been the very model of a modern think thank, brilliantly mixing research and campaigning. With Neil in charge, Policy Exchange is going
Gordon is safe is the new conventional wisdom. Nick Robinson, the arbiter of the CW, said this morning on the Today programme that “Gordon Brown no longer appears to be under threat.” This strikes me as evidence that Labour has given up, that it lacks the stomach for the fight. Looking at Brown’s poll rating—74
If you want to know how a post-Brown Labour party might take on the Tories, I’d thoroughly recommend the Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford edited Is the future conservative? It is one of the first things from the left that I have read that takes the Cameron Tories seriously and maps out how the left
The new Populus poll shows that 74 percent of the electorate thinks Gordon Brown is a bad Prime Minister. As Peter Riddell—not a man prone to over-statement—writes in The Times today, “The public have given up on Gordon Brown.” This is, obviously, in one sense great news for the Tories. Running against an incumbent who
Anne McElvoy’s piece in the Standard today on the Cameron-Osborne relationship makes the following claim: “As their differences are in the open, they do not fester.” It is tempting to agree that sunshine is the best disinfectant. But I wonder how the press would have reacted to Osborne publicly drawing distinctions with Cameron and taking
The news that Gordon Brown has thrown his weight behind Barack Obama has raced round the internets. If truth be told, Brown hasn’t endorsed Obama or done anything like that. Rather, a clumsily written article has implied that he has by singling out Obama for praise and not mentioning McCain. The McCain campaign’s response to these
