Timing of lame-duck coup a shot in the foot for party

AS GORDON Brown was getting the better of David Cameron at prime minister’s questions, the television news channels flashed up the breaking news that two former cabinet ministers were demanding a secret ballot on whether he should remain as Labour leader.

It was hardly the best-timed of launches for their mid-winter plot. And with blizzards sweeping Britain in the worst cold snap for 30 years, many voters will probably be dismayed and perplexed at the latest bout of navel-gazing by Westminster politicians.

Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, who sent the round robin letter to MPs, certainly caught Westminster on the hop. No advance word of the letter to fellow Labour MPs had leaked out, giving them the key element of surprise.