It won’t be leadership speculation that hurts Brown but leadership positioning

One poll already puts Labour below 30 percent but there’s almost no chance that Labour will replace Brown as leader. Collectively the party seems to know that it made its decision when it chose during conference to stick with Brown.

But what will undermine Brown, as James Kirkup argues, is ministers jostling for the best position post-defeat:

One minister sighs that there are “at least four of my Cabinet colleagues who think about nothing else but how they are positioned to succeed Gordon” after Labour loses the next election.   Their names are no surprise, but some MPs say that Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband are doing the best job of wooing backbenchers and Labour activists in the country.  By contrast, shares in David Miliband have fallen so low he may soon need a Government bailout.  Perhaps the Foreign Secretary thought his late conversion to Bush-bashing would win him some friends on the left; he would do well to learn from his brother, whose Heathrow runway rebellion was a much defter bit of politicking.