Enter the assassin

FRANK Field has launched himself with gusto into the role of The Quiet Assassin. Field is Birkenhead's Labour MP and architect of the revolt over the abolition of the 10p starting rate of tax and this weekend, in an interview for the BBC World Service, this unassuming right of centre man, crept up and quietly stuck one between the shoulder blades of our hapless Prime Minister.

Mr Field hasn't given up the possibility of trying to detrail Bottler Brown, if progress isn't made on recompensing the five million or so losers following the Government's rewriting of the income tax bands last year. And he gave this stark warning to the PM: "I would be very surprised if he's still the leader of the Labour Party then and therefore leading us into the election campaign."

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Mr Field said the removal of the 10p rate, announced by Mr Brown in his last Budget as Chancellor in 2007 but coming into effect in this year's Finance Bill, had caused greater anger on the Labour backbenches than he had ever previously seen.

"If we don't get a satisfactory deal, I think there's enough members on the Labour backbenches who will, with others, block the Budget going through. That will make his position intolerable at that stage.''