Rebel ring-leader tells Gordon Brown: ‘Hostilities are over’
Gordon Brown awoke this morning more in control of his party than he has been since the spring. It's taken economic meltdown - as well as a good conference speech, a modest opinion poll bounce and a bold ministerial reshuffle - for him to achieve the remarkable turnaround.
Just weeks ago, the date Monday, October 6 was looming large on MPs' calendars. It was to be the moment an embattled Prime Minister faced the full-throated fury of the Parliamentary Labour Party and maybe even received his marching orders.
Instead the only roar from the PLP last night was of approval for the Premier's handling of the economic crisis. Amazingly, one of the rebel ring-leaders, George Howarth, came close to apologising to Brown when he told him: "Hostilities are over."
Brown urged "unity and determination" in the face of the Tory enemy. He argued that the Conservatives' opinion poll lead was soft, insisting that voters' minds weren't made up, and urged his backbenchers to "go out and win the arguments on the economy".
(There are, incidentally, a growing number of Labour strategists who believe the shifting Tory position on the crisis could hand them a political gift.)
It is not clear, however, whether Brown will go out personally on the doorstep in the Glenrothes by-election which, it will be confirmed today, is to take place on November 6.
But it is a mark of the strengthening of Brown's position that the Mole can no longer find any Labour MP who says defeat in the Fife new town will be the trigger for an attempt to oust him. Last month, his enemies in the party were focusing on the date and dreaming of ringing in the New Year with a new PM.
Brown has probably bought himself another eight months until the town hall and Euro elections next June. Survive those and he will lead the party into the next election.
However, while Labour MPs may be feeling a glimmer of optimism after a politically catastrophic summer, they are not in denial. As ever they will study the polls anxiously and hope that the credit crunch continues to bring out Brown's best qualities.
THE MOLE: PLP MEETING
FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 7, 2008
Gordon Brown needs to improve his spinning team
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