Miliband is presumably looking for a Shadow Cabinet minister to fire this morning after one of his loyal frontbenchers anonymously briefed Mary Ann Sieghart that he could be done in. Next spring is apparently the time to look out for:

“The sun’s been shining in Brighton, Labour is ahead in the polls, new policies are at last being produced, so this should have been a good week for Ed Miliband. Instead, I found myself being collared by a Shadow Cabinet minister, determined to explain to me how the Labour leader could be ousted as early as next spring.

This Shadow Cabinet minister has done the maths. There are currently more supporters in the Andy Burnham camp than the 23 who gave him their first preference in the 2010 leadership election. Add to that the Ed Balls/Yvette Cooper camp, the disaffected Blairites and the disaffected Lefties, and it’s not hard to see how that figure could be reached.”

Every single Shadow Cabinet minister Guido spoke to at Labour conference flatly denied that they would ever brief against a colleague, so who on earth could have said such a thing? It is also wishful thinking. Miliband’s lurch to the left yesterday has pleased Labour’s base and union bosses, while Blairites are marginalised. With 20 months to the election time is running out fast…