Sleaze is back

The Labour party is in a right old pickle. Members of the party must have thought they would be rid of sleaze, given the departure of Tony Blair and the end of the loans for peerages investigation.

But it's back. And this time it has caught several cabinet ministers in it's trap. Gordon Brown probably did not know about the donations coming from David Abrahams, but the party's General Secretary, Peter Watt, did and resigned. It now looks like Harriet Harman, Hilary Benn and Margaret Jay knew about donations from David Abrahams. Hilary Benn was approached with a donation, but on advice from Baroness Jay, refused it until it came directly from David Abrahams. Harriet Harman did accept a donation from an intermediary and there is a lot of speculation whether she will remain as Deputy PM. Certainly GB was only lukewarm in his press conference.

There is likely to be a criminal investigation. This evening, an intermediary, Janet Dunn, has denied sending the money and says she votes Conservative. So this now looks like identity theft too. The web is becoming tangled, and the on top of this the Government's woes are piling up.

Every time Gordon Brown tries a re-launch something crops up to knock him back down again. Such is the way, when the skids start. He maybe able to find a plateau but a recovery is looking less likely. The Labour Party are less likely that the Tories and Lib Dems to ditch a leader when the going gets tough, but just over a year ago there was an attempted coup. How long before there is another one?

Squiffy.