Face-to-face with Labour's glee

By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

It is no exaggeration to say there are some Labour MPs who cannot believe their luck.

Tony Blair escaped unscathed

Even a quick trawl of the bars and canteens in Westminster revealed a barely disguised sense of jubilation over Lord Hutton's findings.

They don't want to be seen celebrating in public, but in private they are rubbing their hands in glee.

Any BBC reporter unhappy enough to bump into such a gathering is swiftly ribbed and asked "haven't you resigned yet", or told "wait until we privatise you".

And there are plenty who will privately admit they had not expected anything so comprehensively positive for the government as Lord Hutton's findings.

Genuine scoop

They all, needless to say, never doubted Tony Blair's integrity.

But most appear to have been expecting at least some criticism, no matter how mild, of the government.

Howard was denied ammunition

The leak of elements of the report to the Sun newspaper suggesting the government and Tony Blair would be vindicated and the BBC lambasted, had been met with some scepticism.

Unwarranted scepticism as it turned out. In a genuine scoop which infuriated both Mr Blair and Lord Hutton, the newspaper got it bang on.

If there are any Labour backbenchers who had been hoping the report would boost their alleged campaign to oust the prime minister, they are not in evidence in and around the Commons.

Indeed, as the long-predicted winter finally hit SW1, the atmosphere in the Palace of Westminster was anything but gloomy.

No bullets

It appeared that most Tory MPs were keeping out of the limelight for the time being.

They were no doubt pondering over their leader's performance in the Commons in the wake of the report.

Hutton focussed on the BBC

Lord Hutton had failed to give him the bullets he needed to fire at the prime minister.

Others were indulging in what can only be described as a bit of gloating.

And most of the talk was about the BBC which was roundly criticised by Lord Hutton.

All sorts of muttered threats and predictions were rumbling around the watering holes.

But BBC bashing has always been a favourite pastime on all sides in the Commons. Usually it has been good humoured and only very slightly serious.

It was decidedly more serious on Wednesday night, but most accepted that the dust needed to settle before considered opinions could be offered on its future.

In the mean time, the sound of muffled cheers will continue to echo around Westminster from some quarters.