This week has gone much better for Labour than many of its MPs thought it would. They started the week in very poor form indeed, grumpy after a bad conference, bruised after the narrow Heywood and Middleton result, and braced for good jobs figures to be published shortly before a very challenging PMQs.
But the party has narrowly avoided real meltdown once again. Had Ukip won Heywood, Labour would be in chaos, but it didn’t and instead those Labourites who do worry a lot about Ukip are now even more worried, which is still infinitely preferable to party uproar over a lost seat. Had Ed Miliband had a poor showing at PMQs, the worriers would have worried some more and encouraged other MPs to grow more doleful about next year’s result. MPs are aware that Miliband is not an asset on the doorstep, and poor performances only increase their nerves.
Ed was saved, though, at Prime Minister’s questions by Lord Freud.
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