Will MPs be less intimidated by a McBride-less No.10?

One thing that’s stood out during this sorry Easter weekend for Labour has been the number of party MPs who’ve been prepared to put their heads above the parapet and condemn the McBridge-Draper smear strategy.

We saw it on PB with the forthright comments on one of the threads by Nick Palmer MP and there was a tough condemnation on the Tom Harris blog.

Given that there’ve been so many within the party who have fallen foul of the McBride-Brown machine could it be that the changes in Downing Street might encourage more questioning about the leadership and whether the coming election would be less disastrous with someone else at the helm?

We’ve been here before and as regular PBers will know I’ve been a long-standing Brown-sceptic. But with the McBride exit and the reasons for it a key part of Brown’s defence capability has gone. One thing that cannot be deployed for the time being is the smearing of the reputation of someone threatening his position.

Brown’s response to the Tory apology calls will be interesting. Even Alistair Campbell is saying that Brown should do something.

He writes: ““This is now one of those stories that will be picked away at until all the loose ends are pulled, so best to get them pulled quickly. For that reason, I hope someone inside No 10 is getting to the very bottom of this episode now.”

In the Labour leadership betting I wonder whether Ed Balls is the biggest loser. McBride was very much his person as well as Brown’s.