Will the wimmin grant Peter his ambition?

PETER Hain proclaims his loyalty to Tony Blair but nevertheless is looking to an era beyond the great Messiah by saying he wants to be Labour's new deputy leader and promising "I will be equally loyal to Gordon Brown, the other towering figure of our party."

Mr Hain's move is widely interpreted as assuming that John Prescott will quit as deputy leader once Tony Blair decides he's had enough and heads off to earn mega bucks writing his memoirs and giving speeches around the globe.

Now then, Peter is one of the most charming individuals in the Government. He networks well at party conferences - no doubt he'll be dropping in at Labour's East of England reception on Monday week - and he is highly media friendly.

So far so good. And he makes this promise. "I believe I can bind back together the Government with the party. I can support Gordon in the task of reuniting the shattered progressive coalition that Tony and Gordon successfully brought together in 1997."

Who did the shattering? Would that be Ipswich's very own knifeman Chris Mole MP. 

I have no doubt that Labour would benefit from Peter Hain's input. I'm sure he'll do a great job if he's elected. He'd get my vote if I had one, which I don't.

But I'm just wondering whether Labour's vast noisy regiment of wimmin will tolerate a male deputy to a male leader. Politics is a tough business and the undoubtedly pragmatic Peter Hain may fail in his ambitions because of the clucking females in the party.

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