You heard it here first

IT'S NOT very often I can claim "a scoop".

However, yesterday in response to the news surrounding Jacqui Smith's departure Guido asked:

Sky News got the scoop, but who leaked it first and why? Brown central arguably would rather have not have this come out until the weekend. Home Office sources were also very much caught wrong-footed. Are we just at the rolling cock-up stage of government? It is hard to see who on the government side benefits from leaking this now apart from a deliberate Machiavellian internal saboteur. Someone with skills in the dark arts of spin who might have decided it is time, for the sake of the survival of his beloved New Labour, to bring down the curtain on Gordon Brown. Jacqui exiting in a messy way puts the reshuffle speculation front and centre and adds to the sense of Brown’s government on the verge of collapse on the very eve of an election. It takes a crisis to precipitate a solution.

Was it the same person who leaked the idea that Balls could go to No 11?

I made the point that it was unlikely to be an individual who cared about "his" New Labour Party:

Hazel Blears? She was Brown's first scapegoat on the expenses issue and probably expected to be reshuffled after Thursday's bloodbath. She's also a close friend of Smith.

Now Guido's asking if Hazel was in fact the individual leaking all the stories about the impending cabinet departures.

Oh well, you heard it here first!