Reprieve for Brown as revolt falters

THE British PM’s chances of survival were boosted last night when a “peasants revolt” of backbenchers failed to materialise.

Gordon Brown had faced renewed challenges to his grip on power last night after the Labour Party suffered its worst electoral results in a century and another minister quit his government.

Brown’s future appeared to rest on the outcome of yesterday’s meeting with several hundred Labour lawmakers from both houses of parliament to discuss the dire election results.

Brown attempted to defuse the febrile mood among his MPs by admitting to “weaknesses”, and promising a new approach and new policies.

He also delivered a stark warning that the party risked returning to the wilderness if it succumbed to “disunity” and kicked him out.

Repeated applause and the stamping of feet could be heard from the private meeting. Labour House of Lords member George Foulkes said there had been strong support for Brown.

However, former transport minister Tom Harris, ex-home secretary Charles Clarke and former whip Siobhain McDonagh told the packed gathering in the Commons that Brown had to go. Ex-trade secretary Stephen Byers also insisted he must be replaced.

But the rebels’ hope that their call for change would be taken up more widely at the private meeting was not realised.

One backbencher who had been wavering over whether to support the PM in recent days said afterwards: “The moment has passed for now. The momentum was not there.”

Twelve disgruntled ministers have quit in the last week, undermining Brown and raising doubts about his authority.

“He wants to fight on,” said Jane Kennedy, the junior environment minister who resigned yesterday. “My fear is that it will be to the bitter end of the Labour Party. I think we are now in such a serious position that we really are fighting for the future of the party.”

Labour finished third in Britain in voting for representatives to the European Parliament, behind the main opposition party Conservatives and the UK Independence Party, an anti-EU fringe group. The results were Labour’s worst in a nationwide vote since 1910 – showing the damage wreaked by a scandal over lawmakers’ excessive expenses claims.

Local results in simultaneous elections for district and city hall assemblies wiped out Brown’s party in parts of southern and central England, regions that helped former Labour prime minister Tony Blair win three successive victories.

Brown tried to pre-empt the bad news with a hasty reconfiguration of his cabinet last week – promoting loyalists and handing high-profile jobs to his likeliest successors. He pledged to refocus his legislative programme on reviving the economy and cleaning up Britain’s political system.

He is legally required to call a national election by June 2010, and Labour’s drubbing at the polls has been read by most as a harbinger of catastrophic defeat. Britain’s Conservatives are seen as virtually assured of returning to power for the first time since 1997.