It's on. But when will Gordon go?

Scrapbook got word that, on Saturday, PPCs had been briefed to expect Brown to visit the palace at around 3:30pm today. Although some very senior Labour people were, at some point over the last few days, working on the basis of an afternoon announcement, the thinking seem to have changed by Bank Holiday Monday with a number of other rumours circulating:

• Brown would see the Queen after a political cabinet meeting at 9:30am, with Buckingham Palace indicating she was available after breakfast.
• Around midday was also mooted as an option. At some point staff at Labour HQ were told this was likely. Scrapbook knows of at least one Labour MP making travel arrangements on this basis.
• Yet another suggestion was that Brown would make the trip at some other point in the afternoon in a bid to keep the Tory response off the lunchtme bulletins.

Late last night, however, Kevin Maguire tweeted “Mirror expects Brown to go to Palace tmrw 10am, election announcement 11″.

The smart money is now on the morning.

UPDATE 07:55 Brown’s schedule now confirmed as 9:15am political cabinet meeting; 10:00am to Buckingham Palace accompanied by permanent secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood; back to Downing Street by 11:00am.