Gordon ties himself to the mast on vehicle excise duty

Sam Coates points out over at Red Box that Gordon Brown boxed himself in on vehicle excise duty at PMQs yesterday by telling those questioning the move that:

“Don’t you know these reforms are going to save 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 and increase the number of clean cars”.

Sam thinks that Gordon let his irritation at John Hutton and Jack Straw’s freelancing on this issue, both have suggested that the rise might be revisited, get the better of him. Now, what’s interesting here is that Downing Street appears to be convinced that Straw is on manoeuvres, readying himself for the role of caretaker PM if Brown is knifed. It will be well worth keeping an eye on the Straw-Brown relationship in the coming month.