Yesterday Guido brought you former Labour MP Tom Harris’ late-night Facebook post in which he appeared “give up” on his party. Today Harris confirms he has considered leaving, but won’t. Yet.

“Labour still expect to be taken seriously as a potential government? Really? Don’t they understand there are Student Union presidents up and down the country shaking their heads in dismay at Labour’s immaturity?

So why don’t I just leave?

It’s tempting, I’ll admit…

I often ask myself what the point of staying in the Labour Party is when there’s no prospect of their forming a government. And my first answer to that is usually, well, I’m also a member of the National Trust for Scotland and I don’t expect them to be in government any time soon either.

But two things keep me in, for the moment at least. Sentimentality is one. Being a Labour Party member has defined my entire adult life – what would I be outside it?

But the second thing is bloody-mindedness. Every sensible, moderate person who, for perfectly understandable and noble reasons, walks away leaves space for the practitioners of idiocy who increasingly make up the party membership. And in the same way that a coma patient’s loved one might resist the doctor’s advice to pull the plug, I still live in hope of a sign of recovery – the twitch of a finger, the flicker of an eyelid, a remotely sensible policy proposal… But patience and tolerance are finite.” 

Don’t hold your breath…