Gordon Doesn't Have Courage, But Do the Labour Party?

Huge political story this lunchtime of two Labour backbench MPs, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, calling for a ballot on whether Gordon Brown should continue to lead the Labour Party. They have written to every Labour MP saying there are deep divisions within the party over its leadership and the issue needs to be sorted out once and for all.

We all know that Gordon doesn't have the courage to call an election until the last possible moment, but do the Parliamentary Labour Party have the courage to firstly hold the proposed ballot and then to actually sack their leader?

Hoon and Hewitt have nothing to lose, they're both going to retire from politics at the next election, and they believe that the Labour Party have nothing to lose either. The political calculation is this; if the PLP back Brown then this could show a new unity within the party around their leader, equally if they sack him then the party could gain a boost from someone new heading up the party. If Labour don't rally support from either of these two scenarios then they won't have lost much since it looks like they're heading for electoral defeat anyway.

The fact of the matter is that if they know what's good for them then Labour must at least hold the ballot, otherwise the Conservatives will be able to paint the whole of the Labour Party with the same brush - that they bottled it!

What is most interesting is the line "we can't go on like this" was used in the letters, which is the slogan that was used on the Conservative posters that came out on Monday.

This is a last ditch effort to win the general election. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and so on ...

Watch this space.

JR