Saturday, 1st December 2007

What Gordon Brown should have done

James Forsyth 1:20pm

As this scandal drags on it is becoming clearer that Gordon Brown made a huge political mistake on Wednesday morning. When Jon Mendelsohn confirmed Nick Robinson’s report that he was aware of the arrangements by which David Abrahams was funding the Labour party, Brown should have sacked him.

Brown could have issued a statement saying that he had requested the resignation of anyone in the party who was aware of what was going on with Abrahams. His failure to do so means that Brown has effectively endorsed Mendelsohn’s actions and anything that damages Mendelsohn damages him.

There is now a row going on between Mendelsohn and Abrahams about who knew what when. As the BBC reports,

“On Friday, there were contradictory claims about what was known and when by two key figures in the affair.
Mr Abrahams said he discussed his donation arrangement with Jon Mendelsohn, now the party's chief fundraiser, in April.
He also said that he received thank you letters from the Labour party following his donations.
But that was denied by Mr Mendelsohn who said Mr Abrahams' claims were completely untrue.”

If Mendelsohn had been dismissed all this would be far less damaging to Brown. Indeed, Brown’s failure to act in the ruthless manner we have come to expect from him is one of the oddest things about this whole affair.

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SJH

December 1st, 2007 2:03pm Report this comment

Brown is "ruthless" insofar ast he is a self-willed bully but he is famously indecisive when faced with a politically strategic decision. Small wonder he froze on Wednesday. His default mode is inertia when faced with political consequences he can't reconcile. That's why he was supine for all those years, brooding as Blair shafted him. That's why he bottled the election. I don't want that tormented ditherer notionally in charge if this country faces difficult decisions.

TGF UKIP

December 1st, 2007 3:23pm Report this comment

Nor are the media likely to let up on Mendelsohn knowing his background as one of the founders of one of the most active of all the New Labour lobbying companies LLM. Lobbying is at the very interface of money and political access and influence which is, no doubt, why the media are treating all his denials with such scepticism.

Cyclops

December 1st, 2007 3:55pm Report this comment

Today, Saturday, December 1st, Mr Brown declares that over £6 million has gone as donations to support opposition parties. This may be true but so what? Brown tries to smoke screen Labour and their crimes by implying that all the other parties should be investigated as well. The difference is that Labour have a case against them as Brown admitted in the House on Thursday. The other parties haven't been caught out ..yet. There are no doubt some frantic 'reviews' going on in a lot of party headquarters at the moment.

James Leaver

December 1st, 2007 5:20pm Report this comment

I haven't much time for politicians in general but this second rate mob have the lowest standard of this century!They have shown that they are incapable of governing a country and their answer to any problem is to throw money at it.