MailOnline

Can the party stop its Deputy “going rogue“

Those who followed the White House race closely last autumn will recall how in the final weeks John McCain’s campaign became plagued by the antics of his ticket partner, Sarah Palin. The V-P nominee, realising that they were facing defeat, began to develop her own agenda and efforts by the offical McCain campaign to rein her were just pushed aside.

Palin, it was said, became more interested in positioning herself for the 2012 White House race than in the then battle with Barack Obama. In the words of many commentators at the time she had “gone rogue”.

Isn’t that precisely the situation now with Labour’s elected deputy leader, Harriet Harman? She’s come to her own view about the election outcome and for her the objective is to be best positioned to take over from Brown when the time comes.

The Daily Mail article featured above quotes a Labour insider as saying:”..There is a pattern of behaviour developing with Harriet that is entirely about what happens after a Labour defeat. You can see it in much of what she is doing at the moment. It is all about sucking up to the Labour party and the unions.”

Some of her policy initiatives are designed to make her popular in the party – irrespective of whether they go down well with voters at large. There’s a strong Sarah Palin parallel there. On top of this there’s also a suggestion that Harriet plans to use the April G20 summit in London as a platform – which add, surely, to the fury at Number 10.

The great challenge for Brown Central is that Harman faced an election in 2007 and beat off five other prominent Labour figures, including Alan Johnson, to secure the deputy crown. She owes her position to that victory and it’s very difficult for action to be taken against her. Add the gender issue and you have a very dangerous mix.

…Just like Sarah Palin after she had been elected to the Republican V-P slot last September.

In the Labour Leadership betting Harman remains the favourite – just like in the 2012 Republican Nominee betting where Sarah Palin is the strong favourite.