Peter Hain is toast. Gordon Brown’s defence of him in The Sun today is not so much luke warm as broken-boiler Arctic. On Friday, the PM’s spokesman said that Gordon had “full confidence” in the Work and Pensions Secretary – always a bad sign. This has now been down-graded even further to a statement of support which is entirely conditional, and implies that GB himself is not yet sure precisely how bad what Hain did actually was. “He took his eye off the ball,” says Brown, “and he has apologised. The matter must rest with the authorities, who will look at these matters.” If I was Hain, I would get my coat.
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