When I wrote my last post about Labour's uneasy truce, I hadn't watched last night's Newsnight Scotland which an interview with Glasgow South Labour MP Tom Harris who as I said earlier was one of the few to tell Gordon to his face what many of the desk thumpers were no doubt thinking - that he should go and go now. He had decided to speak out earlier that afternoon, presumably as a result of the wake up call of the SNP being ahead on his patch.
In his interview, which you can watch yourself on iPlayer, Tom Harris said some very interesting things. When asked who should replace Gordon as PM, he played it nice and cool "That's for me to know and you to wait and find out." When pressed, he said: "It would be very unfair on any of the potential candidates to start naming them before they have declared their own hands." That sounds to me that leadership campaigns, plural, are already being formed in the shadows of Westminster. While it's a logical assumption to make, Tom came right out and pretty much confirmed it. It looks like even if Brown went, Alan Johnson would have a fight on his hands for the top job, so they couldn't have a coronation.
I wonder if Tom's praise of James Purnell's "outstanding example" is a clue to where his loyalties lie.
Tom doesn't think that Brown will last the course to a General Election, but if there is to be a contested election, the rebels will have to get rid of him quickly in order to allow a contest which will take probably till the conference with an election shortly thereafter. Do we know if any extra phone lines are being installed anywhere?
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