'Iron discipline' at Labour Party Conference

Damian McBrides arrival is a bit of a Westminster issue and I certainly don't think alot of people will be very shocked to hear that the way that some of those who were around Gordon Brown behaved was rather toxic and the reality.

That said, Mr McBride and I don't think he will but if he does start to make accusations about what Ed Miliband and Ed Balls knew about his activities then that does get significant dangerous.

I think on the broad issues, where it rests really in Brighton is this. The Labour Party brand is still relatively strong I would say, all the polls suggest that people in some sort of way identify with its values. If the next election is about how best to make the recovering economy work for you there is every chance they will do quite well.

But they do have quite a significant problem, all the polls suggest, on the issue of public finances. Well why might that be important? Well not least because there is a further £25 billion black hole which has to be filled some time in the next parliament.

So on the question of how you do that, and none of the parties have really spelt it out, I think credability is absolutely key. That is why Mr Balls was talking about it, and trying to address it today.