Doubts grow over Brown leadership

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown's week began with a glint of winter sunshine. It has ended in deep frost. Former Cabinet minister Geoff Hoon may declare his "snowflake coup" with Patricia Hewitt to be over. Woefully organised and crudely mounted, it barely stood a chance. But while Labour MPs overwhelmingly rejected the call for a secret ballot, it has left Gordon Brown weakened and diminished as a leader.

First was the silence as Cabinet ministers failed to rush forward with immediate expressions of loyalty. Then, when their statements did come, they were notably half-hearted. Barely had this attracted widespread comment than reports began to circulate of aggrieved and disenchanted Cabinet ministers seeking to wring concessions from the Prime Minister on changes to campaign strategy and for his inner circle of advisers to be broader and more inclusive. Far from a Prime Minister emerging strengthened and invigorated from the collapse of this coup attempt, he now seems a prisoner of a disputatious Cabinet cabal – and it is the cabal that looks to be calling the tune. Helped along in public appearances by an unctuous Lord Mandelson, it is Mr Brown who appears the weaker figure.

The coup is dead. But the doubts over Gordon Brown's character and leadership have grown. Not only has it left him more vulnerable, but it has left voters with niggling doubts as to who is really in charge behind the door of 10 Downing Street.