A lesson Guido learnt the hard way in his younger days was “never antagonise a redhead”.   Could Gordon be about to learn the same lesson?

It has been bothering Guido that he couldn’t see the logic for anyone leaking Jacqui’s exit plans. Certainly doesn’t make sense for Brown central to leak it (contrary to LabourList’s claim).  Guido was putting the leak in the cock-up rather than the conspiracy category.  However the Blears theory makes some sense – Blears feels aggrieved that she got roughed up by Brown over expenses in a way that Darling (until yesterday) Hoon and Purnell did not.   She also feels imperilled by the reshuffle and of course she isn’t really a fan of Gordon.  By destabilising Gordon and revealing ahead of the re-shuffle that a woman is already leaving cabinet she shores up her own position.  She also scores some brownie points for the future by laying some useful ground-work for Alan Johnson…