Well that's another Blairite fox shot then. Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, had begun to be talked up in some quarters (once Alan Johnson ruled himself out of the leadership race) as a possible dark horse capable of running against Brown.
Could she be our own Sarah Palin, albeit minus the moose-hunting and the weirdly named children?
Nope, apparently. She put in a good enough performance at the Observer's conference fringe event with Andrew Rawnsley to qualify.
Then she went and said, when asked if she ever thought about going for Number 10, ''No. I don't want to be prime minister nor do I believe I will be prime minister ... the idea that you are not making a contribution unless you are a prime minister is wrong."
So that just leaves Hazel Blears (tipped by the Mail's acerbic sketchwriter Quentin Letts, of all unlikely people, yesterday..)
Well she did get a more spontaneous standing ovation yesterday than D Miliband ... and she hasn't been photographed looking slightly strange with a banana...
