Labour’s depressed MPs

If you want to get a sense for how demoralised Labour MPs are at the moment read John Kampfner in The Telegraph today. Kampfner writes that:

“Several senior figures I have spoken to in recent weeks say they are considering standing down before the next election. This is a natural process, but such a retirement process accelerates as the prospect of opposition beckons.

But my straw poll suggests the numbers thinking of quitting Labour benches may be unprecedented. They know that something terrible is afoot: the collapse of centre-Left politics, not only in Britain but across Europe.”


Oddly enough, this sense of despair is one of the things keeping Brown safe. If you think you’re going to be wiped out anyway why bother going through the trauma of deposing a leader?

One of the other things to watch is whether those Labour Ministers who will probably lose their seat at the next election try and return to Westminster or whether they chose to pursue more lucrative careers in business or the media.  If