Siobhan McDonagh resigns ... and a surprise comeback?

Siobhan McDonagh's call for a 'clear the air' leadership contest took most people in Westminster by surprise. As with Charles Clarke's interview, the sense is rather more of a series of sporadic personal interventions than a well oiled plot.

The MP for Mitcham and Morden - who has now left her job as an assistant government whip - does not have a high profile in the Labour Party, and is probably best known for being the sister of Margaret McDonagh, the not unaninimously popular party General Secretary during the peak years of the Blair revolution.

But this is not the first time Siobhan has played a walk-on role in leadership speculation.

As PPS to John Reid, she had a central part in the short-lived fireworks around his 2006 party leadership speech which (along with Frank Luntz's Newsnight focus groups) reportedly "left no one in any doubt he was ready to take on Gordon Brown for the top job". Until he didn't.

As everybody knows, John Reid plans to stand down at the next election - to spend more time with his football club.

But his Airdrie and Shotts constituency has yet to begin selecting a replacement.

I doubt Reid is having second thoughts - unless there is something important we are not being told!

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