So many crises

Nov 28 2007 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

WHICH of the many crises engulfing Gordon Brown – Northern Rock, “Datagate”, sleaze – will inflict the biggest damage on his fledgling Premiership?

With accusations flying at the beleaguered Prime Minister thick and fast, it’s not an easy question to answer – but it’s tempting to have a stab.

There are now inquiries ongoing into both the missing CDs at the heart of the child benefit records blunder and the “dodgy donor” who, this week, brought down Labour’s top official.

Until the probe into what caused the personal details of 25m people to be “lost in the post” reports next month, the Chancellor’s job hangs in the balance.

The heat is on, Mr Darling, over his insistence that a junior HMRC official messed up, when the published emails suggest senior managers knew about the blunders.

Similarly, an inquiry will determine who in the Government knew that a millionaire businessman secretly – and unlawfully – donated £600,000 to Labour through middlemen.

We know that Harriet Harman, Mr Brown’s deputy, accepted a proxy donation, and no-one believes the departed general secretary was the only person aware of what was going on.

Mr Brown’s confused comment yesterday – “If the inquiry names names, then those names will be named” – hinted at the panic at No.10.

So, a scalp may still be claimed over either of these scandals and both – because of incompetence and sleaze – are toxic for the Prime Minister.

However, I wonder whether the crisis that will still be hanging over Mr Brown long after the New Year dawns will be Northern Rock and the fate of £24bn of taxpayers’ cash?

The Chancellor can argue that the missing CDs are an “operational” matter – but the Rock bail-out was a policy decision for which he cannot escape responsibility.

It was Mr Darling who said: “We fully expect to get that money back”.

The favoured Virgin bid comes up £13bn short, so that clearly will not happen – or not for many years.

When the Chancellor’s political obituary is written – perhaps in a reshuffle next summer – the first line will refer to the “Crock”, rather than “Datagate”.

We are watching

FOR some light relief, how about this battle at Westminster for the title of Britain’s top ... racecourse?

In a Commons debate on horse-racing, a Tory MP claimed that Cheltenham, in his Gloucestershire constituency, was “the greatest in the world”.

That was red rag to a bull – or a horse – to the listening Knowsley North and Sefton East MP George Howarth, who immediately shouted out: “Aintree!”