Amid all the Labour backbiting and leadership speculation, there remain some – almost comically enthusiastic – voices of support for Gordon Brown. Here’s Tony Lloyd, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, speaking to the BBC earlier:
Of course, it’s part of the PLP chairman’s role to both promote and create the impression of unity. But, on that front, few will have ever done as much firefighting as Lloyd has this year. Look through newspaper articles written in the aftermath of David Miliband’s Guardian op-ed – or in the aftermaths of the attacks on Brown made by, say, Lord Desai, Gordon Prentice and John McDonnell – and Lloyd crops up in many of them, often peddling the same “the majority is behind Gordon” message.“The truth is most Labour MPs, the overwhelming majority, want Gordon Brown to be the one who delivers the policies, makes sure that they are implemented …. Anybody who would have taken Gordon Brown on [in last year’s Labour leadership contest] would have been crushed … he continues to be the outstanding politician of this era.”
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