Bagehot writes that "this is bold and desperate act by Mr Browna kind of political kamikaze, immolating himself in a bid to prevent David Cameron becoming prime minister":
The beneficiary, perhaps, will be Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. After a long meeting with his MPs this afternoon, Mr Clegg's negotiator, David Laws, emerged to say that his party was seeking more details from the Tories over various aspects of policy (see my last post). Mr Brown's statement has provided Mr Clegg with some extremely useful leverage in his negotiations with Mr Cameron. The Tories have hitherto been confident that Mr Clegg had no viable alternative to dealing with them. Perhaps he still doesn't; but Mr Brown's act of self-sacrifice will leave them feeling much less sanguine.
James Forsyth, on the other hand, thinks this helps the Tories.