A sex scandal, a public humiliation, a Home Office bungle, and apologies in triplicate. New Labour has hardly experienced a tougher 24 hours than its own version of Black Wednesday, at the end of which there were question marks over the future of three of Tony Blair's most senior ministers.

Mr Blair has had his bad days before - the Ecclestone affair, the death of David Kelly and the double resignations of both Peter Mandelson and David Blunkett: this one, though, was different. It was a triple whammy - controversies swirling around John Prescott, Patricia Hewitt and, most seriously, Charles Clarke.

There were indeed echoes of the dying days of the Major regime, and a fin de siècle atmosphere pervaded at Westminster last night as Mr Blair was thrown on to the defensive at Prime Minister's Questions, with his greatest discomfort over the release of 1,023 foreign criminals from British jails - 288 of whom were set free after the Home Office was warned there was a problem.

Labour MPs expressed concern that the disclosure, the job cuts in the National Health Service and the "cash for peerages" scandal would harm the party's prospects in the council elections in England a week today. They warned that if Mr Blair did not "get a grip" immediately, he would have to stand down "sooner rather than later."
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