A flurry of phone calls this morning has shone light on the possibility that the new General Secretary, David Pitt-Watson, has changed his mind about the wanting the job before he has even started.

Congratulations to the new General Secretary of the Labour Party David Pitt-Watson. I have meet David a couple of times at pension conferences and have been very impressed. He was our guest speaker at a UNISON conference fringe last year which I chaired. It was called “Trade Unionists are the New Capitalist’s”. Check out David’s book on this subject.

He is an experienced former Labour Party assistant general secretary and successful fund manager for Hermes which runs the huge BT pension scheme (unusually the scheme owns Hermes). He can walk the talk. I suspect that he is taking a big pay cut to do this job (which admit it, is going to be a pretty thankless task at times).

He is just the bloke to sort the Labour Party finances and its campaign machinery in time for the next election. Good Luck David (you'll need it)

Former Assitant General Secretary David Pitt-Watson has been appointed GS by the NEC. Pitt-Watson has a track record in private sector finance and I have acquired the biog below from the Labour Finance & Industry Group. Pitt-Watson is believed to have been the Prime Minister's preferred candidate for the position.

The latest donations and borrowing data from the Electoral Commission revealed Labour's net indebtedness in Q4 2007 was slightly higher while donations were sharply lower. The Party's dependence on its traditional financial supporters - the trade unions has increased, while TU members' readiness to fund Labour is facing increasing opposition from rank-and-file members.