Labour is revolting.

Is it my imagination or is there an all our revolt in the Labour ranks at the moment. Over the last few weeks there has been a whisper here, and a comment there, which to be fair is par for the course with any party. But yesterday was astonishing.

To start the day you had the Chancellor opening criticising Labour policy. The spin doctors in the party have already tried to defuse that particular row by saying that it shows that the government is listening, and knows that it must do better. However, what is actually happening is that senior Government ministers know that their time could well be up if Gordon ontinues on this track. What surprises me is the openess of their criticisms. Even Gordon Brown himself never dared to criticise Tony Blair in public, and only dared to get his underlings to do it at the end of his tenure.

Although, we shouldn't be surprised at the supposedly calming influence of Ed Balls coming out and saying that all the mud slinging should, after all it's a well known secret that he'll put himself forward for leader at the next opportunity. Which could be in June if the London and local government elections go really badly.

So if the in fighting wasn't bad enough a resignation would be unthinkable, and we nearly saw that. It was hardly a secret that Yvette Cooper's PPS, Angela Smith MP, was telling her colleagues that she was thinking of quitting her role in the goverment over the scraping of the 10p tax band. Even I heard about it, and I'm extremely low in the blogging food chain, that's how well known it was.

But, Angela Smith has now reportedly said that she does not intend to resign after a telephone conversation with Gordon Brown. Now this is a line we've heard before, and it would surprise me if the one of the conversation was similar to that of when PM telephoned Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, telling her "don't resign".

The thing is the resignation of a PPS is hardly big news, it's what is commonly known as a one day item. However, when wee Wendy was told not to resign over donor allegations, at a time of a string of allegations across the government, it could have potentially been the beginning of a chain reaction of resignations. The resignation of a PPS, over the government's tax policy, could have also been the beginning of open season on the government's policies. So it didn;t come as a surprise that after "that conversation" Angela Smith decided not to resign.

Things are certainly not looking good for Gordon Brown at the moment, his popularity is at an all time low, and that will harm Labour on May 1st, and at the next General Election, and the Labour party knows it. I know a couple of Labour party activists, and even they have no faith in Gordon Brown. One of them even said that it having him as leader was like "the worst set of beer goggles possible". That is the problem for Labour, the cabinet are openly criticising his policy, the back benchers are criticisng him as they are worried for their own seats, and the activists have no faith or motivated to go out for the election. Labour councillors, London Assembly members and Ken Livingstone himself, must all be worried that any backlash they face personally, will only be doubled by Gordon's unpopularity.

If the elections go the way the polls suggest expect the "mid-term protest vote" spin from Labour, and for the criticisms to get louder.