Peter Hain resigned today from his dual cabinet posts of work and pensions secretary and Welsh secretary. He quit the cabinet after the Electoral Commission had referred the affair of the undisclosed donations to his campaign for Labour's deputy leadership to the Metropolitan Police. Hain said this had left him with no choice but to resign.
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We learned of his resignation shortly after recording today's edition of Newsdesk, our daily podcast, so here we present a special edition of the show focusing on Hain's resignation.
Our correspondent David Hencke broke the story of Hain's £103,000 in undisclosed donations earlier this month. He joins me on the line from Westminster, where he says there's some surprise at Hain's resignation - and some consternation at who else the Electoral Commission is investigating.
Guardian commentator Martin Kettle joins me in the pod. He agrees with shadow Wales secretary Cheryl Gillan, who says Gordon Brown should have acted earlier and sacked Hain.
And we assess the career of Hain's replacement at the Department for Work and Pensions, James Purnell, a rising star and a possible future PM.
