Harriet Harman's "silence" over Gordon Brown's future was down to a cold, according to Chief Whip Nick Brown.

He also told me members of the Cabinet get on "very well" with each other personally and were not divided.

In the fallout from the so-called failed snow plot, claims of lukewarm support for the PM from Cabinet colleagues erupted after they took hours to issue supportive messages.

But Mr Brown said: "People didn't know about it and it took everyone by surprise. We are all busy people and we have other things to do.

"We are just back [from Christmas] and got other things to do, I don't see anything sinister in that."

On Ms Harman's response, he said: "She is actually full of cold, she really is. She came in for Prime Minister's Questions and the Parliamentary committee, but she didn't say anything because she is full of cold.

"But there is no great mystery to it. I saw her myself and she is actually as sound as a pound."

So David Miliband is now getting flak amid the fallout from the failed coup against Gordon Brown.

The Foreign Secretary, and South Shields MP, has come under fire for his less than ringing backing for the PM last night - several hours after the plot broke.

He has now come out and been more effusive. But it has laid him out to claims that he was considering a leadership battle but bottled it again. Either way, he is feeling the heat.

Tomorrow's Journal should be interesting for an inside track on the story... Could it all been down to a cold spell?

Those of you who were watching BBC1 between 5.15 and 6pm this/yesterday evening
(6 January) now know what I sound and look like for, yes, that was me on The Weakest Link.

(I would have blogged about it before but the BBC don't like you to give the end away before broadcast)...

If you go to www.blog.com, and search for Tuesday 29th December, at about 1pm GMT, you will find a bunch of blogs written in broken English by Iraqi university students. I watched as they wrote their new year resolutions, hopes and plans.

Veteran MP Ronnie Campbell had strong words for rebels Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, saying: "These ex-ministers just make me vomit.

"Ex-ministers who have lost their jobs are like cry babies. They must be like the only child in their families and if they didn't get their way, they upset everybody else.

"They are entitled to their views of course, but there is always a time and place for these things. But the time has gone.

"It you wanted to get rid of Brown, you should have done it long ago. We have got to get behind him."

Fast moving developments today regarding Greg Stone who as of writing this is the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Newcastle East.

But could the curtain about to draw on his bid for Parliament before the general election has even been called?

Mr Stone has come under pressure after revelations surrounding comments he posted to a political blog about MPs.

And now I have learned that crunch internal talks are now underway right now about his future and that a potential replacement has been lined up.

THIS week I've had four Sunderland footballers training with me at my gym in Ryhope and I was impressed with how they got on.

I've been able to spend Christmas back home, working at the Olympian Gym me and my dad set up last year.

Lee Cattermole, Anton Ferdinand, Andy Reid and Nyron Nosworthy are all coming back from injury and they came down for a session this week.

EXCLUSIVE

A TOP civil servant at the Department for Transport claimed for a £1 fare on expenses despite an annual salary of up to £120,000 and looming spending cuts.

Details of business expenses by senior officials were slipped out by the Department for Transport (DfT) just before Christmas and could prove embarrassing in light of the MPs' expenses scandal.

It comes as the DfT's most recent annual report - published last July - showed overall UK transport spending was planned to fall by more than £1bn from £9.196.1bn in 2009-10 to £8.108.7bn in 2010-11.

And further cuts could come as politicians struggle to reduce Britain's £178bn debt.

Yep, you can't beat 3rd round weekend. Nothing better than a draw that ensured that fans would face a 800 mile round trip on the day after New Year to watch an ineffective 0-0 draw with Plymouth.