Is Brown now safe in job of PM?

Analysis
By David Thompson
Political correspondent, BBC News

First week back at Westminster and MPs could be forgiven for taking a minute or two to check their bearings because, in the last few days, the political landscape has been completely transformed.

The Conservatives picked up on the photo of David Miliband holding a banana

Three weeks ago, the prime minister's political lifespan was being measured in days, not years. David Miliband was not just the heir apparent, but the Only Man Who Could Save Labour.

Then Gordon had a good conference and David slipped on a photographic banana skin.

Being lampooned in the papers when your star is supposed to be in the ascendancy does not bode well for a future leader of men.

Now we have had The Reshuffle. And the return of Peter Mandelson.

Millions of words have been written about whether this is a stroke of genius or madness, but it undeniably sends a message to Blairite malcontents at Westminster that Gordon Brown is reaching out to them - and not just with the return of the prince from over the water.

Blairite ministers promoted include Jim Murphy, Liam Byrne and Pat McFadden - all given key roles in respectively, Scotland, the Cabinet Office and Business.

The main loser in the reshuffle was a Brownite - Des Browne to be precise. He lost his job as defence secretary to accommodate the rise of the Blairites in the shape of John Hutton.

Gordon Brown has also reached out to the Left of his party.

'Boiler room'

Jon Trickett, a leading left-wing MP, has become the prime minister's parliamentary private secretary - his eyes and ears in the tearoom and on the backbenches.

Brown tried to get another influential MP from the centre-left, Jon Cruddas, into his ministerial team, but couldn't find him a job he wanted.

But if the prime minister has reached out to the Blairites and the Left, look what he's done in the boiler-room of government, the Whips' Office.

He has restored his loyal lieutenant, Nick Brown to the post of Chief Whip. He hass promoted another heavyweight, Tommy McAvoy, to be deputy.

Old-school bruisers John Spellar and Ian Austin, the prime minister's former PPS and general voice-on-earth, join the team.

Fighting chance

The iron fist in the iron glove, as it was described to me - and not without its own risks.

Yes, it reassures the prime minister that he has a truly loyal - and combative - Praetorian Guard around him, but it also runs the risk of turning off more thoughtful or sensitive MPs.

Sometimes waverers need an arm round the shoulder rather than an arm twisted up the back to make them fall into line.

There is a lot of 'tough' in that Whips' Office, but not a lot of 'love'.

Will all of this be enough to save Gordon Brown's premiership?

Well, to be honest, the world financial crisis will probably have more of a say than George Howarth, even if the former Home Office minister is now professing support for his leader, just three weeks after calling for him to be replaced.

But Brown's re-fashioned team has at least given him a fighting chance.

And that is something he did not look to have just a few short weeks ago.