The heat is off – but more is to come from Blears

The temperature dropped both metaphorically and meteorologically in Westminster this afternoon.

Lord Mandelson remains an unlikely bouncer guarding the Prime Minister’s front door, and his soothing presence on the lunchtime bulletins reassured some that there couldn’t be a major Blairite plot if he wasn’t part of it.

But make no mistake, Hazel Blears’ resignation timing was highly political, and her meeting with Gordon Brown in No.10 this morning was “grown up” but “not friendly” according to a source. They aired their differences but “like grown ups”.

The way to look at Hazel Blears’ resignation statement is as a holding statement. She will have more to say after the reshuffle. But this is not a Cabinet plot. Hazel Blears just blew up after feeling No.10 was throwing mud at her and wanted to get out before she was pushed.

Last year there was some Cabinet plotting. This year the Cabinet is looking across at the parliamentary party waiting for a lead and although the backbench plot leaders claim 80 Labour MPs’ support, we will only know the colour of their money if and when the letter is published.

PS – Hazel Blears has just alighted from her train to Manchester and smiled silently and beatifically at a repeated question: “Do you think Gordon Brown is the right man to lead the Labour Party?”