Peter had no option but to go, and in doing so he did entirely the right thing. I shall refrain from mentioning his case here until the police investigations are finished.
Paul Murphy, the new Welsh Secretary, is a man for whom I have a considerable degree of respect. He is clearly seen as a safe pair of hands, and has been appointed to calm things down after the turmoil of the last few weeks. He is known to be lukewarm on devolution and was bitterly and vocally opposed to the Labour – Plaid Cymru deal in the Welsh Assembly.
This is bad news for Gordon Brown on several fronts. His handling of the Hain affair was weak; he failed either to give unequivocal support to Hain or to dismiss him. To keep in place a minister who he admitted was incompetent and who later had to resign in such unfortunate circumstances will play very badly with the electorate.
Furthermore, Hain’s resignation does not signal the end of Labour’s agonies. As The Times points out:
“Mr Hain’s fate intensified the discomfort surrounding other Labour figures, including Harriet Harman and Wendy Alexander, involved in Electoral Commission, parliamentary or police investigations.
“It appears that Mr Brown may be unable to escape the cloud of police inquiries into Mr Hain and the proxy donations of £600,000 to Labour from David Abrahams until 2009, possibly election year.”
Testing times indeed for the Prime Minister. The New Year relaunch has come to grief on the slipway.
