If Geoff Hoon is to be moved in the coming reshuffle, which seems almost certain, who to make the new Chief Whip will be a telling and tricky decision for the PM. Many Brown loyalists are furious about Hoon’s light-touch approach to the rebels. His comments about the rebellion have been ambivalent—“I simply don’t think at this stage it’s appropriate” is hardly a ringing endorsement—and they fume that Chief Whips are meant to put the thumb-screws on rebels rather than treating them with kid gloves.
Brown must be tempted to move a loyalist into the slot. But if someone did start putting the rebels on the rack, that could push a bunch of the quietly disaffected over the edge. Yet it is hard to imagine who outside his inner circle Brown could trust right now. Also anyone other than a Brown loyalist might believe that their higher loyalty to the Labour Party requires them to tell Brown when it is time to go
If we do see a Brown bruiser moving in to the job—and Nick Brown is already running what is effectively a shadow
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