Blears resigns to spend more time with her constituents

Today Hazel Blears has gone, following Jacqui Smith, announcing 'I am glad to be going home to the people who matter the most to me: the people of Salford.' Aside from the sickening insincerity of it, what this really indicates that she is going to spend the next few months doing nothing but campaigning in her constituency to try to hold on to her seat when Labour collapses at the next General Election.

But what does this mean for the EU elections? Normally a senior minister resigning just before an election would be seen as catastrophic news, but this time, with two of them going (and maybe more), it is just lumped in with the rest of the bad news for Gordon Brown. 

Caroline Flint, the Europe Minister, is widely reported to be the next likely minister to quit.

So just how bad is it all going to get for Gordon tomorrow? The polls are putting Labour on 16-22%,  and I think that they are going to end up under 20%; Labour voters simply aren't going to turn out in numbers as the bad news keeps on landing. This leaves a massive swing vote available in areas of the country that should bring about good results for smaller parties like Libertas, the Greens and UKIP.