Labour is back doing what it does best – tearing itself apart

As the Damian McBride emails scandal continues to draw more of Gordon Brown's closest aides into the frame - with Schools Minister Ed Balls, union fixer Charlie Whelan and party boss Ray Collins now feeling the heat - it is easy to understand the glee being displayed by some MPs.

The bad news for the Prime Minister is that a significant number of those rubbing their hands together come not from the opposition parties, but his own benches.

And there is a growing feeling in Westminster that what we are now witnessing is Labour doing what it has always done best - facing troubled times by tearing itself apart. It has even been whispered into the Mole's ear that the entire 'McBridegate' scandal was launched by Brown's internal enemies.

The conclusion many are reaching is that, with the party now staring electoral defeat in the face, the Blairites are re-grouping. No one is ready to lay the blame for the email leaks or the apparent attempts to widen the circle of Brown aides implicated in the affair directly at the door of the Blairites - but neither is the idea laughed out of court when floated to Labour MPs who know only too well how deep the divisions run.

This particular conspiracy theory starts from the premise that Labour has already lost the next general election so the Blairites are, to borrow an old sporting expression, getting their retaliation in first.

They believe Gordon Brown will be forced to quit immediately after the election and the party will then revert to type and re-engage the old battles between left and right, Old and New, Blairites and Brownites. So - the theory goes – now’s the time to finish off the Brownites once and for all, giving the Blairites and their favoured candidate - David Miliband, James Purnell or whoever - a head start in the race for the leadership and control of the party.

The old left will undoubtedly put up a fight but no one believes they will command enough support within the parliamentary Labour party or even the unions to take them back to the "good old days" of Michael Foot and Tony Benn. Some believe, even hope, that the old socialists will follow the lead offered by veteran former MP Alice Mahon and finally quit the party, particularly if it looks like the Blairites are back on the march.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown certainly seems to think that is a possibility and there would then be a revival of the Blair 'project' - the long-wished-for realignment of the centre left around a New Labour and Lib Dem core.

Of course, this conspiracy theory may just be another example of mass paranoia amongst Labour MPs, but if it is accurate, expect a few more potential Brownite successors to find themselves the subject of stories about their part in the emails affair.

THE MOLE: MCBRIDEGATE

FIRST POSTED APRIL 20, 2009