The Brown question

Gordon Brown timed the Crewe and Nantwich by-election so that MPs would be heading out for the recess as the result came in. With Labour MPs scattered to the four winds, leadership plotting failed to get off the ground. This and the Labour party seeming to row in behind the government on 42 days do not mean that Brown is out of the woods, though. As Rachel Sylvester notes this morning, “Labour MPs will no longer give Mr Brown the benefit of the doubt. The next crisis (a funding scandal, another U-turn, a ministerial resignation) could be fatal.” 

It is revealing how frank various cabinet ministers are prepared to be about the Prime Minister’s failings. Slyvester quotes one saying that Brown has “made terrible misjudgments”, another that “He’s crap at communication and the role of a leader is to communicate,” and a third bemoaning “He’s just not as good as I thought he’d be.”