Brown ballot coup: what did Darling say to the PM?

Supportive statement now here from Alistair Darling.

“As far as I’m concerned, we should be concentrating on the business of government and getting through the recession, the PM and I met this afternoon and we discussed how we take forward economic policies to secure the recovery. I won’t be deflected from that.”

 Not exactly a North Korean-style statement of support, but a source close to Alistair Darling says he thinks the idea of a secret ballot is daft.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of that meeting. It happened at a rare moment of maximum leverage.

Did Alistair confront Gordon Brown with some home truths? Did he extract any sort of promise about economic management? We may have to wait for the memoirs.

I hear Jack Straw and Harriet Harman may currently be in No. 10 and they still haven’t done the supportive TV statements that some thought were coming some time ago.

Senior ministers don’t seem to be volunteering North Korean-style messages for support for Gordon Brown, with the exception perhaps of Alan Johnson, who has just described Gordon Brown as the best man to lead the Labour Party.

No. 10 says it is cool about that and wants it to be clear that the business of government is simply carrying on.