Sky News got the scoop, but who leaked it first and why?  Brown central arguably would rather have not have this come out until the weekend.  Home Office sources were also very much caught wrong-footed.  Are we just at the rolling cock-up stage of government?  It is hard to see who on the government side benefits from leaking this now apart from a deliberate Machiavellian internal saboteur.  Someone with skills in the dark arts of spin who might have decided it is time, for the sake of the survival of his beloved New Labour, to bring down the  curtain on Gordon Brown.   Jacqui exiting in a messy way puts the reshuffle speculation front and centre and adds to the sense of Brown’s government on the verge of collapse on the very eve of an election.  It takes a crisis to precipitate a solution.

Was it the same person who leaked the idea that Balls could go to No 11?