The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, suffered a severe personal and political setback yesterday when Mr Alun Michael resigned as First Secretary in anticipation of a no-confidence vote by the Welsh Assembly.
And the Prime Minister's devolution troubles mounted as the Welsh cabinet promptly appointed Mr Rhodri Morgan, last year's defeated leadership challenger, as Acting First Secretary.
Plaid Cymru's acting leader, Mr Ieuan Wyn Jones, described Mr Michael's unexpected resignation as "a cynical ploy" designed to pre-empt the assembly's verdict, buy time and return the question of his leadership to the 28-member Labour group.
However, the presiding officer ruled that the assembly's business should proceed as planned, and the no-confidence motion was subsequently carried by 31 votes to 27, with one abstention.
The national assembly will meet in special session this morning to consider how to fill the vacancy, having watched Mr Michael, in the most dramatic moment of his career, hand in his letter of resignation to the presiding officer during his speech defending himself against the no-confidence motion tabled by Plaid Cymru with Conservative and Liberal Democrat support.
The motion was tabled because of Mr Michael's failure to deliver a Treasury promise of matching funding necessary to secure EU Objective 1 spending totalling £1.2 billion over the next seven years. However, while Mr Michael's intentions remained unclear, there was speculation that his decision to go was finally forced by matching loss of support within the Labour group itself for a leadership style variously described as "austere, humourless and dictatorial".
Mr Michael emerged victorious from the electoral college convened to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of the former Welsh secretary, Mr Ron Davies, before last year's Assembly elections.
However, the former Home Office minister and rising Blairite never shrugged off the perception that he had been "parachuted in" to the Welsh leadership at Mr Blair's behest over the popular choice of the party rank-and-file, Mr Morgan.
By going before he was pushed, some observers thought, Mr Michael might have sought to avoid formally losing the Assembly's confidence, so winning himself time to secure a deal with the Liberal Democrats.
But shortly before the Assembly debate got under way there were reports from Cardiff that Labour members had suggested loss of the no-confidence motion would require subsequent decision on Mr Michael's leadership of the Labour group by secret ballot.
And the speed with which Mr Morgan was nominated as Acting First Secretary suggested a desire on the part of Labour members to make a fresh start for the Assembly under a new leader, albeit, perhaps, one Mr Blair had resisted almost as strenuously as the London mayoral candidacy of Mr Ken Livingstone.