Labour’s national executive committee are meeting again this week to revive the search for a new general secretary to replace Peter Watt - who quit last year after the David Abrahams proxy donations controversy.

On Friday the party slipped out the news that David Pitt-Watson, the City fund manager who was poised to take the job, had walked. The founder and chairman of Hermes Equity Ownership Services was concerned about potential liabilities from taking up the job at a time when Labour is about £20m in the red.  

There is speculation that Mike Griffiths of Unite - who was pipped to the post by Pitt-Watson - could stand again.

But my understanding is that the unions are trying to secure a more consensual figure and have Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of Unison (now part of super-union Unite), lined up. If you want to know more about him here is a link.

Another frontrunner is likely to be Ray Collins, a senior figure in the Transport and General Workers Union (also part of Unite).