Sheerman gathers support...

Nice to see the Sunday Times picking up on the ‘Sheerman stalking horse’ story that Lobbydog ran on Thursday and Friday.

I’ve spoken to more MPs who are considering giving Sheerman their support, but it’ll be impossible to tell until the day.

A leadership challenge buds

Yesterday I blogged on a rumour that Barry Sheerman MP would put himself forward as a ‘stalking horse’ candidate in a Labour leadership contest.

The decisive point may be when Sheerman, one of Brown’s arch-critics, attempts to win the chairmanship of the Parliamentary Labour Party at the end of the month.

The fact that Sheerman is standing for the role at all is a pretty clear sign to Brown that moves are afoot.

I’m told that Sheerman and any rebels will watch the number of votes that he gets in the chairmanship race to measure whether there is wider appetite for a coup.

If the votes for Sheerman tumble in, then we could see some leadership contest action – though a lot depends on how things go with the Sir Thomas Legg review.

If MPs are continually pushed by Brown to pay up and they are hit with big bills then the PM could be in for trouble.

Harman takes on Gord's leadership role, says Labour rebel.

Alan Simpson has got a big old rod out and is stirring up the doo-doo to the best of his ability.

The Nottingham South MP, who earlier this week said he would only pay £500 back if he were forced to by the courts, lauded Harriet Harman today for taking on the role that he said the PM had “walked away from”.

Simpson claimed Brown had “rolled over” on the expenses issue by simply ordering his MPs to hand whatever money back that Sir Thomas Legg demanded.

The rebel MP added that even loyal Labour members – like those who criticized Brown at the party’s meeting on Monday night – were beginning to realise that the PM would sacrifice anyone and anything to keep himself in Number 10.

Then up pops Harriet Harman during yesterday’s Business Questions to suggest that MP’s would be justified in not paying money back and that they were free to challenge Legg’s findings.

Simpson said: “What we saw yesterday was Harriet Harman taking on the leadership role that Gordon Brown simply seems to have walked away from.”

Rumours of a new plot to overthrow Mr Brown have begun to circulate in the Palace of Westminster.

At the end of this month Barry Sheerman MP, an arch-critic of the PM, will attempt to become the chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party – the organisation of backbench members.

Meanwhile another Notts MP Nick Palmer was among a group of ten members who launched Labour’s Future, set up to counter the idea that the party has become “intellectually exhausted”.

Palmer denied the move was meant as a criticism of the way the party was being led.

Sheerman the stalking horse

Lobbydog has heard that arch-Brown critic Barry Sheerman is thinking about putting himself up as a stalking horse in a Labour leadership battle.

There’s no doubt that the Sir Thomas Legg affair has left some people in the party very angry at Gordon Brown at the moment.

The plotters who tried to oust him earlier in the year may feel that they’d have a better chance now.

In the summer many MPs were scared of toppling Brown because it would have meant an immediate election and imminent defeat to the Tories.

But now an election is just around the corner anyway – maybe another leader could save a few marginal seats for Labour, they say.

Sheerman has at least confirmed that he is thinking of standing against Tony Lloyd to be chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party later this month.

But the Huddersfield MP has denied this is part of a move to topple the PM.