by Chris McLaughlin
UP TO 10 Cabinet ministers have confided that Gordon Brown should quit as Prime Minister before the next general election if Labour is to stand a chance of winning it.
Amid furtive plotting before the House Commons rose this week for the summer recess, at least three members of Mr Brown’s top table are reported to be prepared to “do something about it” unless there is an early indication that he is able to restore Labour’s electoral standing.
With most MPs despairing of the leadership and the chances of winning the next election opinions are being canvassed on the timing of a leadership challenge or coup.
Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who believes the party is doomed unless Mr Brown goes, has been seen openly testing the mood of MPs on all sides of the Labour spectrum as well as senior trade union figures.
But while he is doing little to disguise his opinions, Cabinet ministers who take the view that the election is lost as long as Mr Brown is leader have confided their opinions to colleagues in private.
Discussions are continuing to take place – against the backdrop of the Glasgow East by-election contest – about whether a challenge should come in the autumn, around party conference, or closer to the expected election date when a snap, earlier election would be called.
Some MPs on the left who share the feeling that Mr Brown is an electoral liability have rebuffed overtures from the plotters on the grounds that any coup would land the party with a more reactionary leader.
Former minister Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, is the only senior member to break silence on the plots. Claiming that eight out of 10 Labour MPs wanted the Prime Minister ousted, Mr Stringer said in a statement last weekend: “Whether we win or lose in Glasgow will not affect the party’s dismal standing with the public.
“We need clear policies on issues like the economy. People are confused, and the only way of having that debate is a leadership election with or without Gordon Brown.
“I know from conversations with Labour MPs, from the newest backbenchers to Cabinet Ministers, that they all feel the same way. The only difference of opinion among them is whether he should go this summer or next year.”
Although Mr Stringer is widely considered to be embittered since he was dropped from the Government after three years in 2002, his views echo those privately voiced by many MPs, although others believe Mr Brown has been the victim of bad luck as well as poor judgement and could make a fresh start out of the Warwick conference this weekend.
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