Brown defies critics: ‘I will not walk away’ = Reshuffle buys time for UK prime minister

Brown defies critics: ‘I will not walk away’ = Reshuffle buys time for UK prime minister
By Jean Eaglesham, George Parker and Jim Pickard in London
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: June 4 2009 22:19 | Last updated: June 5 2009 18:47
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6cd31774-51d5-11de-b986-00144feabdc0.html


Gordon Brown on Friday defied calls from within his own party to quit as Britain’s prime minister and attempted to regain control of his administration, using a cabinet reshuffle to buy breathing space amid a string of government resignations and disastrous local election results.

The resignation from cabinet of James Purnell, a rising government star and leading Blairite, caught Mr Brown by surprise and pitched the ruling Labour party into a full scale internal battle over its future.

As growing numbers of backbench Labour MPs echoed Mr Purnell’s call for the prime minister to go to give Labour a chance to win the next election, which must be held by next May, Brown allies rushed to his defence.

In announcing the reshuffle, Mr Brown admitted mistakes had been made and accepted responsibility but made clear he was staying. “I will not waver, I will not walk away, I will get on with the job,” he said.

It was also becoming clear that Mr Brown, whose party is far behind David Cameron’s Conservatives in the opinion polls, had lost a battle of wills with Alistair Darling, the finance minister, and been forced to scale back plans for a sweeping government overhaul.

Downing Street confirmed that Mr Darling would stay at the Treasury after he told Mr Brown he wanted to continue and that it would damage financial stability and the economy if he were forced to stand aside. Mr Brown had been preparing to replace Mr Darling with Ed Balls, schools secretary and a close ally.

Even as the prime minister spoke, the ministerial resignations escalated. Caroline Flint quit as Europe minister and accused Mr Brown of treating her like ”female window dressing”.

John Hutton quit earlier in the day as defence secretary and Geoff Hoon resigned as transport secretary. Mr Hoon will take a temporary role as an adviser on European issues and Nato ahead of a vacancy appearing for Britain’s next EU commissioner later this year.

The prime minister announced that three new ministerial councils, including on the economy and on constitutional reform, would report weekly to cabinet and confirmed plans for parliamentary reform in the wake of a scandal over MPs’ expenses.

Alan Johnson, formerly health secretary, is to become home secretary, replacing Jacqui Smith, who quit this week.

Labour rebels had hoped Mr Johnson, who can call on strong support among the party’s grassroots and unions, would emerge as a unifying successor. Accepting the Home Office role amounts to a pledge of loyalty to the prime minister.

Mr Johnson said he backed Mr Brown ”to the hilt” to continue as prime minister. He said he would ”never say never” to becoming prime minister at some point but insisted that he could see no circumstances at present where he would mount a bid for the job.

David Miliband has stayed as foreign secretary following reports that Mr Brown wanted to replace him with Lord Mandelson, who remains in his role as business secretary.

The open call for Mr Brown to quit from Mr Purnell – the third cabinet minister to resign in as many days – came as the polls closed on Thursday’s local and European elections, in which Labour was braced to suffer its worst results for decades.

In a devastating resignation letter, Mr Purnell told Mr Brown his “continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely. That would be disastrous for our country”. He said he was calling on the prime minister to “stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning”.

There were fears in financial markets that Mr Brown could be forced out in days or weeks. The pound tumbled against the dollar, at one point below $1.60.

David Cameron, Conservative leader, said the government was “falling apart in front of our eyes”.

Other European governments are following closely Mr Brown’s political difficulties. Concerns in Brussels are growing that the UK prime minister’s problems could jeopardise prospects for the European Union’s Lisbon reform treaty.

With the Conservatives on course to win the next election, EU officials are worried by their position on Europe. The party has left open the possibility of a referendum on Lisbon.

Downing Street made little effort to disguise its anger at the ambush sprung by Mr Purnell, saying Mr Brown had been informed of the resignation only minutes before the news was broadcast as the polls closed at 10pm on Thursday. Aides said Mr Brown was “disappointed” by the move, which he considered “mistaken and misjudged – it can only damage the Labour party”.

But some backbenchers echoed Mr Purnell’s call for the prime minister to step down. One Blairite former minister claimed Mr Brown would be “gone by Friday night”.

Initial indications from Thursday’s local elections were pointing to disastrous results for Labour. The Conservatives have already made strong gains, winning four councils. They have taken Staffordshire from Labour, Devon and Somerset from the opposition Liberal Democrats and won power at the newly created Central Bedfordshire Council.

The results of the UK-wide European elections will be declared on Sunday night.