Blears quits in fresh blow to Brown

A SECOND British cabinet minister has resigned, undermining Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s authority and his future as leader of the increasingly out-of-favour Labour Party.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears’s decision to quit, on the eve of European and local elections in which Brown’s party faces a rout, followed a similar move by Interior Minister Jacqui Smith and pre-empted a widely-expected cabinet reshuffle.

Blears and Smith are the highest profile casualties of the fallout from disclosures about outlandish, taxpayer-funded expenses claims made by members of parliament at a time when recession is forcing hundreds of thousands out of work.