Meetings add intrigue to the Labour plot

The Prime Minister on a BBC Radio Solent phone-in said the coup has “taken up very little of my time” and is a “storm in a tea cup”.

He was asked if the Cabinet’s statements of support were effusive enough and said “I think they were”.

He was asked shouldn’t the Cabinet be saying Gordon Brown’s the right leader of the Labour Party and being explicitly supportive of his leadership.

Mr Brown said: “To be honest … that is what they did … almost every Cabinet minister out within an hour or two …”.

Well, by my records of the slow drip, mealy-mouthed statements from yesterday I’m not sure that is strictly accurate and a Cabinet minister this morning confirmed to me that there was “quite a lot” of contact between ministers during that deafening silence in the afternoon.

Then there is the question about what was talked about in those meetings the Prime Minister had yesterday afternoon.

Last night, one Brown ally was saying that Jack Straw and Harriet Harman were trying to get status and recognition in their chats, making sure they were consulted, key players.

The Alistair Darling meeting (only Mr Brown and Mr Darling in the room) in No. 10 is tantalising everyone. How far did Alistair go?

He’s known to have been hugely frustrated with Gordon Brown. Did he suggest Gordon should think of going?

His office today said that was “absolutely, categorically untrue.” One Cabinet minister said to me “how do we cohere” after all this? And that question goes for cohering in government and in the campaign.

Labour will go into the next election it now looks more than likely with Gordon Brown as leader but, given the coup attempts that come at six-monthly intervals, no guarantee that he would stay leader for long even if he won the general election.