Westminster blog

I’ve come late to the Frank Field blast against Brown. It is an excoriating attack on Brownite terror and an “inept” government team.

Don’t let anyone kid themselves that this was an unimportant election where voters felt they could make a clear protest vote. Unless something changes significantly on a national level these results would be reproduced at a general election.

Labour cannot win with the present Prime Minister. I was one of the seven who would not support his coronation after Tony Blair was shoehorned out of Number 10. But even I didn’t think a Brown administration would be as inept as this one.

The Brownites are attempting to terrorise Labour MPs into inaction. If they succeed then we deserve our fate.

It is simply absurd to argue, as does No. 10, that the next leader must call an immediate general election. A new leader, when being invited by the Queen to form a government, should inform the Monarch that he or she intends to return in April of next year to call for a General Election on May 6. The new Prime Minister would make that a part of a message brought back from the Palace.

There is no love lost between these two men. But it is unexpected. Before this intervention Field was concentrating on his campaign to be Speaker and was keeping his distance from the mutiny, at least in public. While a bit despondent over the Bercow-for-Speaker juggernaut, he was pleased at having won the support of John Cruddas and others on the Labour soft left.

The odds on him becoming Speaker seem to be holding up on Betfair at about 6/1. But I expect those will drift out soon enough. Field has put the need to oust Brown ahead of his own career.