Brown to quit as Labour bids to woo Lib Dems

GORDON Brown last night announced he will resign as Labour leader – but offered to stay on as Prime Minister in a potential power-sharing government with the Liberal Democrats until his party has chosen a successor.

Brown said he had asked the Labour Party to set in train the formal mechanism to replace him, after insisting he was confident an administration could be formed with Lib Dem allies to command a majority in the Commons.

But the Conservatives later made a last-ditch attempt to forge their own deal with the Liberal Democrats, offering a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) electoral system for Westminster elections.

Following a meeting of Conservative MPs in the House of Commons, shadow chancellor George Osborne said the referendum proposal was being put to the Lib Dems as part of a final offer on a power-sharing deal.

The AV system, which involves voters numbering candidates in order of preference in single-member constituencies, was backed by Labour in its election manifesto but falls well short of the truly proportional systems favoured by Lib Dems.

In the most dramatic twist since the election results were announced, Brown admitted that Labour’s defeat “is a judgment on me.”

Cabinet minister Douglas Alexander – Labour’s general election co-ordinator – said Brown had decided to step down last week.

“He made a judgment shortly after the election results that this was the right course of action,” he told Sky News.

Brown said Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg had formally asked to open negotiations with Labour on a possible deal on the formation of a new government.

The request came after Clegg addressed his own MPs on the progress of talks with Conservatives.

In the meeting, Lib Dem MPs insisted they wanted more “clarification” from Tories on issues including electoral reform, education funding and fairer taxes before entering into any pact.

Hopes had been high earlier in the day of a Tory/Lib Dem deal, after 90 minutes of discussions between the parties’ negotiating teams and a face-to-face meeting between David Cameron and Clegg.

Cameron addressed Conservative MPs in a House of Commons committee room after the PM’s announcement, and shadow foreign secretary William Hague emerged to deliver the Tories’ final offer to the Lib Dems. Hague said the Lib Dems made clear they were only willing to enter into a coalition with a party which was prepared to switch from first-past-the- post to AV for Westminster elections.

While Conservatives were concentrating on their priorities like the economy, education and public services reform, they were prepared “in the interests of trying to create a stable, secure government” to “go the extra mile” and offer a referendum on AV, said Hague.

He said the Lib Dems were now presented with a clear choice between entering an arrangement with Labour which would not produce a stable government with a Commons majority and would impose a second unelected PM on Britain, or a coalition with Tories which would enjoy a majority and would be headed by the leader who won most votes and seats.

Announcing his decision to hand over the Labour leadership, Mr Brown said: “The reason that we have a hung parliament is that no single party and no single leader was able to win the full support of the country.

“As leader of my party I must accept that as a judgment on me. I therefore intend to ask the Labour Party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election.

“I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour Party conference.

“I will play no part in that contest, I will back no individual candidate.”

Brown clearly felt that his party’s only chance of succeeding in talks with the Lib Dems was to quit.

The Prime Minister said his aim was to ensure a “stable, strong and principled government” was formed.

It was “sensible and... in the national interest” for Labour to respond positively to the Lib Dems’ overture, he said, adding: “The first priority should be an agreed deficit reduction plan to support economic growth and a return to full employment.”

Clegg welcomed Brown’s announcement, which he said had been taken in the “national interest” and “could be an important element in the smooth transition towards a stable government that people deserve”.