An escalation

Rachel Sylvester’s article in today’s Times is a perfect summary of the plots threatening the Labour leadership. Two passages jumped out at me:

“Civil servants – who can sink or save a politician – have not warmed to Mr Brown. ‘People say he’s charming in private but it’s completely untrue,’ an official who has worked closely with him said. ‘He’s incredibly rude. He doesn’t remember names. His e-mails are brusque demands. And his defining characteristic is anger. I’ve seen him kicking furniture.’”

“I spoke to a junior minister yesterday who claims to be prepared to resign in September in protest at Mr Brown’s leadership and believes that nine other government members could follow suit – more if you include parliamentary private secretaries, the unpaid ministerial aides.”

The first quote’s hardly surprising, but – after Bruce Anderson’s piece in yesterday’s Independent – it’s fascinating just how rapidly the mainstream narrative of “he’s a decent guy” is crumbling. Until recently, the attacks on Gordon Brown have largely been political. Now things are getting extremely personal indeed. I guess Brown’s reaping what he’s sown.

As for the second quote, the junior minister’s claims could – of course – be little more than bravado. But if they’re not, this could solve the dilemma of who might pull the trigger. You could say that Labour’s committing hari-kiri already – by retaining Brown as leader. But ministers falling on their swords in public could well be too much for the party to bear – and an opportunity for the would-be leaders to step out from the shadows.