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Brown’s one last trick
The Mole: the PM will warn his backbench rebels that another election is the last thing they need, says our Westminster insider
Gordon Brown will tonight play the last card in his hand to see off a renewed attempt to force him out of his job following Sunday's disastrous European election results.
The poll for the European Parliament saw Labour pushed into third place behind the Tories and UKIP. It also saw the far-right BNP gaining two seats and Labour losing a popular vote in Wales for the first time ever. And Brown will take most of the blame for allowing this to happen: for the result appears to be due to a collapse in the Labour vote rather than a surge in support for the other parties.
Backbench rebels planning to revive their attempt to oust the PM will use the European result to argue that under Brown they will be led to certain defeat in the next general election and that it is imperative the party has a new leader. Blairite Lord Falconer and former minister Nick Raynsford joined those demanding Brown's head at the weekend, but there has still be no word from those believed to be behind the plot - former Blairite ministers Charles Clarke, Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers.
So, in what is expected to be a bruising meeting with the Parliamentary Labour Party at Westminster tonight, the Prime Minister will use the election results to issue his last-ditch, general election threat.
He will warn his rebels that, should they attempt to put a second un-elected leader into No 10 Downing Street, there would have to be a general election within a few weeks - most likely in October - rather than next May.
This should be enough to frighten off backbench MPs from signing any letter demanding his head. Labour MPs know they face a sweeping defeat if a general election has to be called this year, with scores of them losing their seats. As one Brownite whispered to the Mole: "The thought that they will not only be signing Gordon's death warrant but their own as well should focus a few minds".
Meanwhile there are growing signs that the Prime Minister and his deputy, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, are ready to offer a huge concession to rebel MPs by kicking part-privatisation of the Royal Mail into the long grass. The last thing Brown needs, should he hold onto his job as expected, is a significant backbench rebellion over a key policy just weeks after surviving moves to oust him.
Lord Mandelson continues to insist the policy will go ahead, but when asked exactly when the legislation was going to be introduced, he said: "In due course". And his aides are stressing that the Government is still open-minded about the issue and happy to listen to alternatives. ·
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Cannot understand why any Labour MP's would continue to support Brown, it's like asking the captain of the Titanic to pilot your new cruise ship. The man is not a victim of circumstances, but rather a victim of own hubris. If Brown is allowed to continue as PM he will accomplish not only the ruin of his own party, but the ruin of Britain too. C'mon Labour, do the right thing and throw this man out. He's proven to be way over his head, Peter principle anyone?
Whilst you're right that a general election this year will lead to utter defeat for Labour, the gamble would have to be whether the result next year would be better or worse. If I was a sitting MP, my gut feel would be that with a new leader at the starting block, there would be a bounce in the autumn.
Mandelson should become caretaker PM with an election in October.
So the party prefers a gurning, verbless ethics free zone to a stolid, vision free frump. Talk about the evil of two lessers. And the country? The green ToryTubbies!? How long can that focus group construct survive political reality? Meanwhile we have a pair of BNP in the Eurovoid to do .. what exactly? Sorry for all the questions but this is unchartered territory, a real choice awaits after all the spin and drivel shows itself to be... err.. spin & drivel.