More woe for Mr Brown, with David Pitt-Watson refusing at the weekend to take up the post he had accepted of Labour's general secretary.

The wealthy Mr P-W is founder and chairman of Hermes Equity Ownership Services. Labour has claimed that he is walking away because of "contractual difficulties" with his old job. "No contractual difficulties with us," says Hermes. Well, says Labour, he has had difficulties extricating himself from his old job. "No," says Hermes. "He left last week."