The end game: A significant development

Brown’s authority has now been openly challenged by a Cabinet member.  Hazel Blears breaks cover with her analysis of Brown’s position:

YouTube if you want to.  But it is no substitute for knocking on doors or setting up stall in the town centre.

On the issue of the Gurkhas, she says the government put itself:

on the wrong side of the British sense of fair play, and no party can stay there for long without dire consequences.

and then:

All too often we announce new strategies, five-year plans, or launch new documents, often with colossal price tags attached, which are received by the public with incredulity at best and at worst hostility. Whatever the problems of the recession, the answer is not more government documents or big speeches.

Such is the panic gripping Downing Street, that Blears has since clarified her statement and given her 100% backing to to Brown. Too late.  The damage has been done.

We now have a Cabinet minister who is prepared to go on the record challenging Brown on his presentation and by implication policy.  Blears is defying convention by breaking collective Cabinet responsibly.

The situation for Labour is now becoming dangerous. Not only could Brown be hounded out of office in a very humiliating way, but the Government's ability to perform in a credible way must now be questioned.

The intervention by Hazel Blears is a very significant development.