Labour’s cycle of deceit?

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics

There is something wonderfully self-perpetuating about mutiny in politics. Any attempt to depose a leader, successful or otherwise, triggers a cycle of rebellion. The danger for Labour after last week is being sucked into this cycle where treason begets treason. Indeed, the conspirators against Brown cite his actions as justification for their own. As Barry Sheerman put it, when challenged about whether he was betraying his leader, ‘I don’t need anyone who undermined the previous Prime Minister and who was utterly disloyal telling me that I am disloyal.’

When a leader has broken the bonds of party loyalty, he struggles to demand loyalty himself. Iain Duncan Smith, a Maastricht rebel, could never rely on the fealty of his party. Equally, Brown does not have the moral authority to call for loyalty because he was known for anything but when he was Chancellor. The two men most tipped to be his successor, Ed Balls and David Miliband, will also have trouble on this front.

If Ed Balls became leader, everyone in the party would still remember how he stirred up dissent against both Tony Blair and his policies. There would be many who would take pleasure in causing his leadership problems. ‘Those to whom evil is done/ Do evil in return’, as W.H. Auden wrote. In politics, turning the other cheek is in no one’s bible.

Balls, though, is unlikely to win the leadership. His main advantage is that in the words of one former Cabinet colleague of his, ‘he is the only person mad enough to really want it.’ One is already hearing of the squeeze being put on party figures to get them to promise their support to him. But Balls is far too factional and divisive a figure to win.