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Remarkable moves at Westminster. Former ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have contacted their colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party suggesting a "clear the air" ballot on Gordon Brown's leadership.

This is of a different nature to previous challenges to Mr Brown - and also, for those with a longer sense of history, to the leadership contests faced by Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Mrs Thatcher fell when she failed to win a sufficiently convincing victory in a leadership contest forced by a direct challenge. Mr Major forced a contest himself by inviting challengers to face him.

This move by Hoon and Hewitt rather resembles a confidence motion. It would be a secret ballot of the PLP inviting Labour MPs to declare whether they support the PM or not.

However, as one sagacious Scottish MP said to me, it amounts to the same in the end.

Will anyone of any standing come forward to contest Mr Brown - or even simply to indicate that such a preliminary confidence vote might not be entirely pointless?

Remember June when James Purnell resigned and, in effect, invited others to follow. None did. Crisis deferred.

This is comparable. If anyone who might, seriously, lead Labour indicates that they are not utterly averse to this debate taking place, then it could be game on. Otherwise, crisis called off once more.

Timing may deter those who might otherwise support such a leadership discussion and, ultimately, contest.

But, at the very, very least, this is a somewhat novel way to prepare for a General Election.

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