Gordon Brown has no antidote for Labour rebels

Gordon Brown has ordered an extra 20 million flu jabs in an attempt to curb the growing panic over swine fever, which appears to be reaching epidemic proportions despite only a handful of cases being confirmed in the UK.

A seriously jet-lagged Prime Minister - he forgot he had a statement to give on Afghanistan and made as if to walk out of the chamber after PMQs - also announced that unlike Mexico where even the religious statues are wearing surgical masks, the public in this country will not be required to mask up. Additional masks are being ordered for nurses so that all NHS staff can wear them if necessary.

While the new measures to combat flu - to be confirmed tonight in a statement to MPs by Health Secretary Alan Johnson - soothed the Commons, Brown has no antidote to the spread of rebellion which is now running like a rash across his own benches.

Around 70 Labour MPs are threatening to defy Brown tonight over the stingy limits he put on the number of Ghurkas who are allowed to settle in this country after serving in the British Army.

The coalition Blair built to win three successive victories is breaking up

The list of rebels is not just the usual suspects, but is led by George Howarth, a former minister and close ally of Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, Chris Mullin, the former minister for Africa, and Martin Salter, the jack-the-lad Labour MP for Reading, who often runs with the rebels, but rarely rocks the boat.

Brown is already being accused of losing the support of his own MPs over the question of expenses, having been forced into a humiliating retreat rather than face defeat in the vote tomorrow night.

There are fears within the Labour Party that the coalition that Blair put together to win three successive victories is now breaking up. The plague of rebellion is spreading like wildfire. And it's begun to seriously infect the Blairites.

It has been noted within the Brown camp that Stephen Byers and Charles Clarke, both long-standing Blairites, led the criticism this week of Brown on the 50p tax hike and the need to rein in spending, even by cutting cherished programmes such as ID cards and the replacement for Trident.

Byers is among the names of the rebels on the Ghurkas, and there is every sign that Brown may end up waving the white flag again on this issue. It looks like he is facing the 'revenge of the Blairites' and there's no mask thick enough to stop the spread of that disease now. ·