He's finally been pushed. There is no way he would have jumped, certainly not of his own accord. He was, of course, allowed to go and make and the announcement himself - all the better to remove Brown from the taint of Hain's corruption accusations by not having his face anywhere near the story. After all, he did say that Hain was incompetent.

Peter Hain's statement - full of phrases such as that he quit to "clear his name", that he felt that he has "no alternative" - just supports this. He has to try and "clear his name" in order to have any chance of getting back into the Cabinet and he had "no alternative" but to resign because he wasn't given any.

This is being claimed by some the first blogging scalp, but I think that the first real blogging scalp is still to come. Although Guido may have may some good points and posts on this issue he, and no other blogger, have yet made the necessary impact and exposure to be able to truthfully claim to have won Hain's scalp.

This is the first ministerial resignation of Brown's premiership. I'm sure it won't be the last, especially as the Hain problem rumbles on, making Harman and Alexander become sitting on a more and more precarious ledge.

Minister quits the government to race in Le Mans.

Well, I suppose it's a better excuse than "minister quits to spend time with his family". Not by a great deal though, really.

And it doesn't really look good that a Defence Minister is quitting to do something as trivial [in the big picture] as to try to get into the Le Mans race when our soldiers are dying in wars all over the world.

Hilary Armstrong, former Chief Whip and currently Cabinet Office minister, is leaving the government at the same time as Tony Blair, John Prescott and John Reid on June 27.

Like Reid, who said he was leaving to give Gordon "maximum opportunity to Gordon to bring in new people," Armstrong has given the same basic message, saying that "I want to give Gordon Brown some space in his Cabinet to renew."

Which, of course as Ben Brogan points outs, translates as "I wanted to save Gordon Brown the trouble of binning me." Like Reid, she has almost certainly been told that there is no place for her in Gordo's new-look [but same substance] government. Unlike Brogan, I see it less as "quite the honourable way to go", but more as a way by which she can save face by leaving rather than actually being binned.

Source: BBC