Brown to lead the IMF?

I'm willing to believe, as Jackie Ashley reports this morning, that some Labour figures are speculating that Gordon Brown might be persuaded to quit Downing Street and fly off to head the new, improved post-G20 summit IMF2 – though I should add that I haven't heard that particular story myself from any of my Labour sources. That doesn't mean the story is wrong, of course! But I still don't think it's going to happen.

Here's why.

First, Gordon Brown has to cooperate in any such manoeuvre. Where is the evidence that he would do so? For the IMF lifeboat story to work you have to accept that Brown is now so humiliated by Labour's standing and lack of electoral prospects that he is (a) willing to give up the premiership and (b) willing to live for the rest of his life with the tag of being The Man Who Wasn't Up To It. That is a huge ask – even Tony Blair found it hard to give up and he was a much more relaxed leader than Brown. I don't think Brown is that kind of person.

Second, Labour has both to want him to go and, at the same time, to be united around his prospective successor. The first part of this condition may be true, though again I don't see the evidence for it yet. But the second part is certainly not true. Alan Johnson is being puffed at the moment as The Man The Tories Most Fear. But he is certainly not the only person who might go for the leadership – the Milibands and, in particular, Harriet Harman, would see this as their one chance to be prime minister. A squabble over the leadership would follow and it would not impress the voters at such a time. More