The malevolence of the Brownies deterred Miliband from running for the leadership last year – to the disappointment of the now vindicated Blairites. Miliband is, we are told reliably, preparing himself in readiness to save the party from catastrophe. Guido was told – by someone who claimed to have spoken to him directly – that he is worried that if Gordon leads the party to disaster, New Labour will be buried forever and the party will fall into the hands of the left-wing once again. Miliband realistically hopes to diminish the likely margin of defeat and put up a stronger fight against Cameron than Brown can manage.

Miliband is clearly too afraid to wield the knife himself so is having to make over-the-top pledges of loyalty while pundits, backbenchers, donors, activists and supporters grow restless. Miliband needs either a credible stalking horse to come out or for Charles Clarke to organise a round-robin letter (along the lines of the Tom Watson letter to Blair) sent to No. 10 . Jack Straw putting on the grey suit and going to see Brown looks unlikely today, maybe the offer of a deputy premiership for him will be required. Maybe Miliband, like Portillo, just doesn’t have the balls…