Could Gord going be a disaster for Dave?
Would PM Straw/Johnson/Denham save more marginal seats?
Just watching Gordon Brown on SkyNews this morning I was struck by the way he sometimes deals with difficult questions by seeking to deny the main premise.
Thus he was pressed on Mervyn King’s comments earlier in the week and, to the great frustration of the interviewer, he seemed to be stating that the governor of the Bank of England did not say what we all heard him saying before the commons committee earlier in the week.
This is a technique, surely, that could land him in real trouble during an election campaign when everything the leaders say will be subject to the most intense scrutiny. He might be able to carry through his denial approach in normal times but not then.
If this morning had happened within less a fortnight to go until polling day it would dominate several news cycles and the PM would not come out of it well. The media are just going to be on him all the time. It is hard to see the campaign itself being anything other than a negative for Labour.
This all brings me to my big question of today – how would Cameron feel if Brown, for whatever reason, stood aside? Could Gord going, indeed, be a disaster for Dave?
Labour would have the novelty of an apparent new direction and someone like Johnson or Denham could enjoy honeymoon quite close to polling day.
The biggest threat to the Tory position at the moment, surely, is having to face a different Labour leader.
