Friday, June 5, 2009

Brown is safe

That's how it looks to me after the events of the last two hours.

The Tories don't want Brown to go anyway - it would be a disaster for them - so Cameron laid off making any particularly "killer" remarks (he could have done a John Smith, for example) in this week's PMQs.

Brown's early reshuffle this morning has had an amazing effect on that email which was alleged to be circulating amongst Labour MPs. It's stopped going round for now, says the BBC's John Piper. Additionally, none of the big hitters - Johnson, Miliband, Hutton - who could have killed off Brown, have done so. Well that says it all doesn't it? Brown is safe.

Brown has also neatly pre-empted the bulk of the council results coming in, and grabbed the initiative/headlines.

He's kept his main rival nice and close to him - Johnson moves to the Home Office (where I think he will do a reasonably good job). That will satisfy Johnson fans, to an extent.

The only resignation so far this morning is John Hutton but that appears to be a loyal resignation, if there is such a thing.

What is amazing is that Darling is staying at the Treasury. Apparently he refused offers of other roles - which speaks volumes about the balance of power in the government.

But Brown can rest easy in Number 10 for a few more months and James Purnell is now looking like a bit of a wassock.

Mind you, this post certainly comes into the category of those I might later regret. I might have to eat my words earlier than I expect!

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