Fear factor

“If GB goes down, he’s going to take everybody with him.”

John Rentoul reports, in his column today, that this is what Nick Brown has told various Labour backbenchers. Leaving aside the sub-Godfather nature of the rhetoric, it is clear that the Brownites have decided to fight the enemy they know how to beat: their internal opponents in the Labour party. It appears that there is now a concerted effort on to make Brown’s critics in the Labour party fear him again.

Meanwhile, the Tories have a largely free ride. Conservative Home reveals that the Tories intend to use this space to issue a more limited commitment to matching Labour’s spending commitments, the new pledge will only apply to a year’s worth of spending after the election.