Two former British cabinet ministers today called for a secret ballot of MPs to decide if Prime Minister Gordon Brown should lead the Labour Party into an election due by June.
The move by Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt brought to a head long-simmering discontent over Mr Brown's leadership ahead of an election which the Conservatives are expected to win. It sent sterling to a session low against the euro.
MPs returned from their Christmas break yesterday following a festive recess marked by a string of calls from anti-Brownite backbenchers Charles Clarke, Barry Sheerman and Greg Pope for Mr Brown to be removed as prime minister early in the New Year.
Mr Brown’s Labour critics feel that an alternative leader would have to take over within weeks to have any chance of making a dent in the double-digit opinion poll lead enjoyed by Tories before the final possible election date of June 3rd.
However, the timing of the call for a ballot was a surprise as many commentators feel it is too late to replace Mr Brown before the election and Labour had started to claw back some ground on the Conservatives in recent opinion polls. There is no obvious successor to Mr Brown.
"Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way in which this (leadership) question is affecting our political performance," Mr Hoon and Ms Hewitt said in a letter to Labour MPs.
"We have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to resolve this issue would be to allow every member to express their view in a secret ballot," they added.
Mr Hoon is a former defence secretary and Ms Hewitt has been trade secretary.
However, Ms Hewitt was planning to stand down at the next election and it is not clear how much support the pair would command among Labour MPs beyond those who have long been critical of Mr Brown.
The rumours of a plot gained such a head of steam around Westminster and on blogs that Olympics minister Tessa Jowell was last night forced to put out a statement denying she was planning to quit.
Some commentators had suggested that Ms Jowell could be the subject of rumours of an impending resignation, because of her recent attack on the “hideous” class-war strategy of highlighting Tory leader David Cameron’s privileged background. “This story is complete and utter rubbish and I have no intention of resigning," Ms Jowell said.
Lord Mandelson yesterday warned Labour against an election strategy targeted on the party’s traditional core support among the working classes, insisting: “We are not a sectarian party. We are not a heartlands-only party... We are not going to win an election on that basis.”
The Business Secretary said Labour had to “reach out to the whole of the New Labour coalition that brought us support in the last three elections and without which we will not win the next”.
Mr Brown served as chancellor for a decade under Tony Blair before replacing him mid-term in 2007.
His critics say he lacks charisma and his ratings have suffered during a deep recession and increasingly bloody campaign in Afghanistan.
With the 2010 election fast approaching, all the parties are already in campaign mode, with regional visits, speeches, adverts and even manifesto launches over the past few days.
Agencies