It is possibly the worst crisis to beset a premiership since 1992, when John Major battled with the critics in his own party against the backdrop of a waning economy.
But as Gordon Brown grapples with eerily similar difficulties, the words of the last Conservative prime minister seem appropriate. “I am walking over hot coals suspended over a deep pit at the bottom of which are a large number of vipers baring their fangs,” Mr Major said.

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