Will Brown bring Blunkett back?

Patrick Hennessy has an authoritative piece in the Sunday Telegraph about the signs that Gordon Brown is set to recall David Blunkett to the Cabinet. Hennessy reports that Blunkett dined at Chequers with Brown on an evening when Wilf Stevenson, one of Brown’s closest friends and his adviser on ‘engaging with local communities’, was also in attendance. This suggests that Blunkett might be in line to take Hazel Blears’ job at the Department of Communities and Local government. 

It is easy to imagine that Brown might view Blunkett as the ideal person to beat back the BNP; on immigration Blunkett likes to talk like a British Sarkozy. Brown might also think that Blunkett would give his government more appeal to working class voters who are socially right wing but economically left wing.

However, the overwhelming message that brining Blunkett back would send would be that Labour is tired and that there is no fresh talent to bring him.