Jon Craig reports that last night

Labour MPs claim a “tearful and dewy eyed” Prime Minister called the Labour waverers into his Commons office one by one and pleaded with them to back the Government. If we lose this vote it will de-stabilise the Government and de-stabilise the markets,” said the embattled Prime Minister, according to one MP who voted with the Tories despite the emotional appeal.

Given Gordon’s emotional instability (he is upset that cartoonists draw him as fat) it may well be that if Gordon resigned it would actually stabilise the government as well as give the markets a boost. Gordon’s mental health is being openly discussed, Iain Martin has a euphemistic piece in the Telegraph today recounting government ministers fears that the Prime Mentalist is “psychologically incapable”;

he is stuck… saying basically the same thing over and over and over again. I have said before that from the country’s point of view it risks becoming disturbing: now it really is.

It can only be that the PM has constructed something inside his head which he passionately believes to be the truth. If he was to admit even the tiniest doubt about one element of it then the entire construct might collapse.

Inside his head we know what he thinks, he is “the saviour of the world” doing the right thing, solving global ills not of his making and unbelievably yesterday Downing Street said Brown was right and the IMF was wrong. At PMQs yesterday Cameron demanded a reality check from Gordon to no avail. He would not admit that, even by his own definition, Britain was bust. If Gordon admitted he had not abolished “boom and bust” he would smash his internal “constructed truth” delusion. Blair was right, Brown is psychologically flawed. It is no longer a personal tragedy, it is at the root of the national political and economic disaster unfolding.

A rumour went round after Monday’s disastrous press briefing that Gordon had wet himself. Guido didn’t report the story because he was unable to substantiate it from the video evidence. That it was even rumoured and given any credence whatsoever shows that people in the Westminster Village think he is a man close to the edge of total breakdown. The humiliating truth is that Gordon Brown is not mentally fit for purpose.

See also Downing Street Needs Draper More Than Ever.