Cherie Blair leaves her hotel
Photo: Martin ArglesOne of the fascinating things about closeness of the press huddle here at the Labour conference is the speed with which rumours are circulated, weighed up and packaged to the public.
It was a matter of moments after the end of Gordon Brown's speech when I first heard talk that Cherie Blair had dismissed the section of Gordon Brown's speech as "lies" where he discussed his relationship with the PM .
The rumour - which came floating over the top of the maze of black press cubicles from the mouths of several journalists accustomed to shouting across the newsroom - turned out to have come from a journalist working for the Bloomberg news agency.
The fact that the story was vociferously denied by Downing Street hasn't stopped the tale spreading like a bad cold through the assembled hacks, or being picked up by many bloggers, including our very own Comment is Free and Guido Fawkes. Bloomberg, meanwhile, stands by its line, with a spokeswoman telling the Press Assocation: "The story speaks for itself."
Whatever the truth or otherwise of the Cherie rumour, it's likely Brown will be cursing Bloomberg's open-eared hack if it ends up stealing headlines from the chancellor's watershed speech this morning.
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