By Paul Goodman
Lots of speculation this evening that Ed Balls may be about to pull out of Labour's leadership contest. Patrick Hennessy of the Sunday Telegraph has some of the details. Unite went for Ed Miliband today – making a hat-trick for him of the big unions: Unison and the GMB are already on board. But while brother Ed has the large unions, brother David has more MPs.
Danny Finklestein has been twittering away at the news, warning Miliband D not to make Ed Balls his Shadow Chancellor. I offered the same advice recently to Miliband E. Hennessy notes that: "Mr Balls's camp was insisting he would fight on in the wake of the Unite
result, which was particularly disappointing for him because his close ally,
Charlie Whelan, is the union's political director". However, "a senior Labour source said: 'It's hard to see where Ed Balls's
campaign goes from here. He faces some tough choices in the next few days.' "
More tomorrow, doubtless.