Johnson story takes another turn 

Both The Mail and The Sun are running on their front pages that Alan Johnson’s wife is allegedly having an affair with his bodyguard. There are, though, other rumours referenced in other papers.

The Tory view this evening is that they now face a tactically harder fight but a strategically easier one. They fully expect Balls to snap at Osborne’s ankles more effectively than Johnson did. But they think that Balls’ previous on the economy and his oft-expressed views on a double dip and the Darling plan will help them overall.

One thing worth noting this evening is that Liam Byrne’s appointment to shadow Iain Duncan-Smith shows that Ed Miliband remains committed to offering broad support to IDS’s welfare reforms. While Yvette Cooper will be glad to move from Foreign Affairs, a brief that didn’t play to her strengths and didn’t excite her, to the Home Office brief.