Gordon brown needs to be careful. One senior backbencher, who has no reason to be grateful to Tony Blair, privately observed this week that perhaps the greatest service he could do his party would be to lead a delegation to Downing Street begging the prime minister not to retire after all. We're all used to stories about how some Labour mps can't wait for Mr Blair to go and how others, better disposed towards the prime minister, nonetheless think he should push off soon and let his successor settle in before the next election. But Labour's dirty little secret is that surprisingly few MPS, apart from those who are guaranteed preferment under Mr Brown, are thrilled by the prospect of the chancellor taking over.
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