Further comment seems almost superfluous:

Acknowledging Labour's vulnerability to protest votes, the foreign office minister Mike O'Brien said: "Michael Howard as prime minister for five years could be the painful price of a protest vote."

He even reminded Muslim voters that more MPs speaking and voting against the war in March last year - 139 of them - had come from Labour than from any other party.

"True, a majority, including me, voted to remove Saddam," he said. But the debate in the country had been led by Labour MPs such as Robin Cook, John Denham and later Clare Short, who all resigned from the government.

Classic.