Brown rallies party after failed coup

BRITISH prime minister Gordon Brown rallied Labour MPs last night, declaring that the “hard- won economic recovery” would provide them with a platform for victory at the general election.

The prime minister, addressing the first meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) since last week’s attempt to oust him, emphasised his commitment to working on the campaign with his team of ministers.

“I am not a team of one, I am one of a team,” he told the meeting, according to aides who were present.

Neither Geoff Hoon nor Patricia Hewitt, the two former cabinet ministers who issued a round-robin letter calling for a secret ballot on his leadership, was present at the meeting.

But two prominent backbench critics of Mr Brown – Charles Clarke and Barry Sheerman – were there, although neither spoke. Aides said all those backbenchers who did speak were unanimously angry at the attempt to oust Brown.

The prime minister made only a veiled reference to what happened, joking that he had received a request for assistance from Salt Union and that he could think of one or two candidates to be sent down the salt mines.

To laughter, he added that the PLP chairman Tony Lloyd would be taking nominations with a secret ballot to choose who would be sent.

Despite the broadly supportive mood of the meeting, it is understood that one senior backbencher – David Winnick – did speak out to say that there was a problem with Mr Brown’s leadership.

While he acknowledged the prime minister would take the party into the general election and described the coup as counter-productive, he said that despite doing his best, Brown had failed to win over the electorate.

He said Labour had been trailing in the polls for the past 12 to 18 months, bringing the possibility that they could let in a Tory government, undermining the achievements of the past 13 years. Peter Mandelson emphasised the need for unity.