Labour are rotten to the core. “Red Rag” was not created solely by Damian McBride and Derek Draper, but went right up to the top with general secretary Ray Collins being in on the act right from the start.

Even if he and Kevin Maguire never received that email or endorsed any of the smears contained within, for those smears to have been written the original meeting must have at the very least examined the idea!

Plus Ed Balls is now also said to be deeply involved in Brown’s smear unit.

McBride has gone, and Draper has been disavowed. What will happen to Collins now that he has been revealed to have been involved? In Brown’s apology statement he claimed that he would do

Everything… to clean up politics in our country

Surely then, if he is going to live up to his own words, he should sack Collins? Brown can’t allow the story to drag on any longer or take in any more senior party apparatchiks and must at swifly and decisively.

The post-McBride polls that have come out so far give the Tories a massive lead – 17% and 19%, with a big drop in Labour’s support – and voters also now see Brown more likely to resort to spin than Tony Blair was.

The longer this drags on, the worse for Labour and it reflects poorly on politics as a whole.