'Maguire has always been in the Balls camp and is a drinking buddy of Damian McBride, who is now back in Westminster lobbying for more taxes to be sent overseas in foreign aid. The old gang seem to be readying to do what they do best: undermining a Labour Party leader…'ma

Guido Fawkes thinks that the usual suspects are on manoevres:

'Maguire has always been in the Balls camp and is a drinking buddy of Damian McBride, who is now back in Westminster lobbying for more taxes to be sent overseas in foreign aid. The old gang seem to be readying to do what they do best: undermining a Labour Party leader…'

Kevin Maguire, Ed Balls and Damian McBride - what a serioulsy unpleasant collection of Labour supporting scum. Whenever I despair of David Cameron I just have to remember the likes of Maguire, Balls & McBride as well as Blair, Brown, Mandelson, Prescott, Straw.... (the list is a long one) and suddenly I realise that things could be so much worse.

Phil Woolas 'explains'

Today's Daily Politics programme has Phil Woolas explaining to Andrew Neil that 98.5 per cent of the 1.67m new jobs for those of working age created since 1997 have not gone to foreign workers. I am confused...

More interesting is the second set of figures on foreign born workers in the private sector.

Nice try by Phil Woolas to try and make out that those making these claims are in some way racist. Just look at Kevin Maguire's face as he tries to not get involved in any way.

Might this explain why Fraser Nelson has had his lobby pass removed?

The Tap reports that:

"Four journalists, including Fraser, were found not to have declared their up-to-date outside interests, and have been reprimanded and punished to some extent by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.

But only Fraser Nelson has been actually banned from the Lobby, his pass removed. The others were more mildly rebuked. We don't know the full facts of the case, but it seems strange that the only confident voice declaring that Labour are, in his opinion, through, is the only one being chopped."

So why would the Labour leadership be so keen on banning Fraser Nelson? It couldn't be anything to do with his unwelcome questioning of the Prime Minister last June, could it? Note that Guido Fawkes reports that the Daily Mirror’s political editor Kevin Maguire hadn't registered a very obvious outside interest, his column in Public Affairs News "that he admitted, with a raucous cackle, having had for two years.". I wonder if the Labour defending Kevin Maguire will have his Lobby Pass revoked? Somehow I doubt it.

Note that in the video above Gordon Brown was still denying any planned Labour cuts (2.3% year on year for three years) and decrying the Conservatives for planning 10% cuts. Gordon Brown claimed that 10% cuts would lead to schools and hospitals closing, perhaps someone might ask him whether Labour cuts planned for 2011 of over 10% will result in similar closures. Maybe Evan Davis could ask Gordon Brown to explain his claim in June last year that "The public spending in our Country is rising and it's going to continue to rise, if you want to debate about public spending cuts have it with the Conservative party who are determined to have them.... that is a fact, I've said it, public spending continues to rise."

All collapsing around his ears?

The heat is being turned up on the dreadful Gordon Brown; Geoff Hoon (Gordon Brown's first Chief Whip) and Patricia Hewitt are contacting all Labour MPs by email (and letter) and therefore the media, calling for a secret ballot of Labour MPs to resolve the issue of Gordon Brown's leadership "once and for all". All the predictable arguments are being made by supporters and opponents of Gordon Brown and the Number 10 spin machine and attack dogs are on manoeuvres.

Meanwhile Charles Clarke and Frank Field are publicly supporting the call for a secret ballot whilst Geraldine Smith is attacking the calls and Kevin Maguire is doing his usual act of defending Labour, attacking the Tories and Geoff Hoon & Patricia Hewitt and of course ignoring the destabilising of Tony Blair that Gordon Brown indulged in for well over five years.

Here's the text of the email/letter:

"Dear Colleague,

As we move towards a General Election it remains the case that the Parliamentary Labour Party is deeply divided over the question of the leadership. Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way in which this question is affecting our political performance. We have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to resolve this issue would be to allow every member to express their view in a secret ballot.

This could be done quickly and with minimum disruption to the work of MPs and the Government. Whatever the outcome the whole of the party could then go forward, knowing that this matter had been sorted out once and for all.

Strong supporters of the Prime Minister should have no difficulty in backing this approach. There is a risk otherwise that the persistent background briefing and grumbling could continue up to and possibly through the election campaign, affecting our ability to concentrate all of our energies on getting our real message across.

Equally those who want change, should they lose such a vote, would be expected by the majority of the PLP to devote all of their efforts to winning the election. The implications of such a vote would be clear – everyone would be bound to support the result.

This is a clear opportunity to finally lay this matter to rest. The continued speculation and uncertainty is allowing our opponents to portray us as dispirited and disunited. It is damaging our ability to set out our strong case to the electorate. It is giving our political opponents an easy target.

In what will inevitably be a difficult and demanding election campaign, we must have a determined and united parliamentary party. It is our job to lead the fight against our political opponents. We can only do that if we resolve these distractions. We hope that you will support this proposal.

Yours fraternally,

Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt"

I wonder if we are now witnessing the death of this Labour government as whenever they get some positive news it is overshadowed by another piece of negative news.