Alastair Campbell told the crowd: ‘Unite behind Gordon to win’. But can they?

When John Reid was asked if he’d stand for Labour party leader, he would always give the same sort of reply. ‘I have a life outside politics,’ he told me at the last Labour conference. ‘I play the guitar, I play piano. I have a house in France. I could walk away from all this tomorrow, and my life would not collapse. Now you may believe me, or you may not believe me: I don’t give a …’.

At the time, I didn’t believe him. Not for a second. Mr Reid seemed to be the classic political animal. Ministerial red boxes from his many government posts are lined up in his parliamentary office like hunting trophies. He would call friends on a Saturday night and chat away; they’d find out later he was sitting in the Home Office with a team working next door. He seemed to be less a man in chains than a pig in muck.