I can reveal the names of three more Labour MPs who have written to request nomination papers, bringing the total to twelve. The new names, told to me by a senior Labour source, are...
Mike Hall
Fiona Mactaggart
Shona McIsaac
They add to the existing list of Siobhain Mcdonagh, Joan Ryan, George Howarth, Graham Stringer, Gordon Prentice, Janet Anderson, Jim Dowd, Kate Hoey and Frank Field.
In addition, I am told the leaking of the fact the letters existed came direct from inside Number Ten.
If this list grows from 12 to, say, thirty or forty, maybe those cabinet ministers whose spine needs reinforcement will make their move. I still doubt it, but the story is dominating the political headlines, much to the chagrin of Nick Clegg and his colleagues here in Bournemouth.
23 comments:
Fiona MacTaggart was confirmed some hours ago....
Are you sure you beat Sky to the McTaggart "exclusive"?
Iain, you had a go at Branson earlier in the week but even he has called Lagger Brown a bottler in today's Mail!
Branson says Brown bottled it
Iain. 70 votes are needed to initiate a challenge to the PM. You probably remember that the bar was set so high so that a challenge to the PM was effectively impossible to mount. Too many Labour MPs are set on remaining in their jobs for as long as possible for a challenge to GB to happen anywhere but in the imaginations of the mediarati. A crying shame, but almost certainly the truth. If you are right and their is a challenge I'll buy you lunch in the Savoy. If I'm right you can but me lunch etc.
Nick Clegg - who he?
Well Fiona McTaggert was in either the Times of Guardian this morning so not sure about the "exclusive" on this one. Sure the others were also mentioned
I have to say that Gordon Brown is looking really awful of late - I mean REALLY.
Do you think that deep down that even he now realises that he was wrong all along ?
The real tragedy of it all is that I think his party have ruined Britain beyond repair.
...but the story is dominating the political headlines, much to the chagrin of Nick Clegg and his colleagues here in Bournemouth.
Who?
Ms Ryan, MP for Enfield North and a former Home Office minister, has also been sacked as Mr Brown's Cyprus envoy - a position she was given when he entered Number 10 in June last year. News item on BBC 1710.
I didn't realise the rot was so deep. This could prove to be an expensive bet.
Even if the necessary 70 Labour MPs can be found, I doubt if any leadership bid against Gordon would be successful.
The only question would be whether he chose to throw the towel in himself, which is highly unlikely.
He's spent 10 years waiting for this job and is sufficiently delusional to believe that everything that's going wrong is nothing to do with him.
Oblivion beckons for the Parliamentary Labour Party.
This has all the appearance of a medieval execution. Hanged (with justification) in the media now being drawn in public and soon to be quartered and have his head displayed on a political pike at Westminister.
Gordon has to realise that he cannot sack the whole Government, one by one. It's over. It's time to go and let the country decide on a new Governnment
This has all the appearance of a medieval execution. Hanged (with justification) in the media now being drawn in public and soon to be quartered and have his head displayed on a political pike at Westminister.
Gordon has to realise that he cannot sack the whole Government, one by one. It's over. It's time to go and let the country decide on a new Governnment
The dirty dozen, eh?
If Labour was in opposition I'd be looking forward to months of this as they tear each other apart.
But as they form the government, they have responsibilities, and they should put up or shut up.
Iain, PACK IT IN NOW !!!!!
You are just using a 'random name generator' to give you girls names [possible old hurricanes' then adding McSomething on the end, to make it look like a mutiny.
STOP MAKING NEWS UP !!!!
it is simply impossible for there to be that many pi$$ed off Scottish lassies in the Labour party when the leader is himself Scottish !!
Beee-haaive ! As Austin Powers might say...
Iain, I am truly baffled - although it doesn't take much.
I am perplexed that No 10 are doing the leaking when this story is doing such palpable damage to them ??
Why ? So that can tip buckets of vitriolic $h!te over the miscreants in public ? 'Pour encourageur les autres.. '
In which case, why bother with those at the bottom of the food chain ? Is it to 'spread the punch' to minimise the shock impact ?
To 'get their retaliation in first' BEFORE it paralyses the conference agenda, and poisons the atmosphere which the media will be reporting on ??
This article leaves more questions than answers...
Labour MPs need to play a brave gambit.
The only chance for many marginals to have any hope of holding on to their seats is to bin Brown, embrace a fresh face, pray for a brief honeymoon period and go straight to the polls. They will probably still lose but they may keep the Tories to a modest majority. And they will probably give themselves a chance of power again after a single term.
The alternative is to fade away and get buried in a landslide of discontent in 2010. It might then be a decade before they get a sniff of government again.
Hobson's choice maybe but sometimes you have to limit your losses.
Guido has forty names if the "coded" messages are included.
http://www.order-order.com/2008/09/who-are-handful.html
Not long now......
Would it be gauche of me to remind Mr.Iain Dale that I predicted that Brown would go and I also predicted it would be around this time ? I think not . I believe Mr. Dale was convinced that beast of Cowdenbeath was here for the duration. I rather hope he is right which is what made me think he is not The Labour Conference is going to be absolutely riveting either way.
BTW Is there an way to search this blog ?
Even if the necessary 70 Labour MPs can be found, I doubt if any leadership bid against Gordon would be successful.
The only question would be whether he chose to throw the towel in himself, which is highly unlikely.
Exactly
Remember Thatcher was not thrown out she gave up the fight. She was apparently told she would lose by the party Big Wigs. However the real reasons Thatcher was given for this 'maybe fact,' were never given to the public.
IMO
We will never know for sure why Thatcher gave up, when 'giving up' was never her way.
IMO
Thatcher was blackmailed, even though I have no idea what she was blackmailed over.
However I have a very good idea that the real reason for Thatchers resignation had nothing to do with The Poll tax, or maybe losing forthcoming elections. But had everything to do with The EU, and Thatchers changed 'attitude' to it.
Atlas shrugged
Why have we in the UK got SO MANY MPs? I have survived quite happily since 1997 only having heard of 2 of these people...
Well good luck to them in their Warholesque moment.
Smart move by Joan Ryan (also a former Whip) to jump now. She has a wafer-thin majority in Enfield North and in addition has lost a safe ward in boundary changes. But if she can, in a forthcoming election, present herself as a main figure in dumping Gordon, she might still be in with a chance - her Tory opponent has already twice lost the seat in the last two elections when it should have been his for the asking......
Perhaps it's a cunning plan by the broon to distract all attention away from the libdems so that he's only fighting for his life on one front at the next election :P
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