Can Purnell rescue Labour?

Can anyone take Labour out of this mess? I have previously dismissed the younger leaders on the grounds that they’d wait for Labour to lose, then try and get back. But with Brown’s ability to hit rock bottom and start drilling, they may be ushered forward anyway. There is never a right time, the best leaders are often decanted too early. David Cameron has grown into his job. So, too, could someone for Labour. And in tomorrow’s Spectator, we choose one: James Purnell.

I can just feel the CoffeeHouser comments coming on now: he’s a spiv, more FHM than PM, A Stepford clone, a perfect example of Peter Oborne’s identikit political class. Iain Dale’s recent verdict (“The empty vessel that is James Purnell”) fairly represents the conservative consensus. As one Shadow Cabinet member put it to me: “Purnell’s cardboard cut out would be a better leader than Purnell.”