Mandelson could lead revolt against Brown
LORD MANDELSON was last night emerging as a potential power broker in the future of the Labour Party, amid predictions the party will suffer meltdown in this week’s European and local elections.
A senior minister told the Sunday Express that disastrous results could spark a last-ditch bid to oust Gordon Brown, provided Lord Mandelson could be persuaded to act.
The minister said: “We know it is going to be grim but if it turns into a total disaster then the leadership question will be straight back on the table.
“Gordon will not go of his own volition, he will have to be told that he has lost the confidence of the Cabinet. Peter (Mandelson) would have to be part of that for it to have any chance of working.”
Another senior Labour figure said: “We are in exactly the same position as last year except that Gordon has had one more year to prove that he is not up to the job.
“The question is whether anyone in the Cabinet has got the nerve to act.”
A close ally of Lord Mandelson said the Business Secretary remained loyal to the Prime Minister but would act if Cabinet colleagues persuaded him it was in the clear interests of the party.
He added: “Could he do it? Yes. Would he? Peter is not in that place yet. He would have to be persuaded that it was in the interests of the country and the party, but yes he could do it because he is one of the very few who is not afraid to stand up to Gordon.
“Others who might have done it have been weakened by the expenses scandal or have already shown that they have not got the balls.”
Health Secretary Alan Johnson, one of the few senior ministers to emerge unscathed from the expenses scandal, is the frontrunner to replace Mr Brown if he is forced out.
Opinion polls yesterday predicted Labour could trail in a humiliating third in Thursday’s European Parliament elections behind the Conservatives and the tiny UK Independence Party.
A Populus poll on the Euro-elections put the Conservatives on 30 per cent, UKIP on 19 per cent, Labour on 16 per cent, the Lib Dems on 12 per cent, the Greens on 10 per cent and the BNP on five per cent.
The same poll suggested Labour would attract just 21 per cent of the vote in a General Election – lower than the 24.5 per cent achieved by Michael Foot in 1983.
An astonishing 62 per cent thought Mr Brown had been the leader most damaged by the expenses scandal, compared with just five per cent who thought David Cameron had been hit the hardest. Private polling for both UKIP and the Conservatives also suggests that Gordon Brown is lining up a wide-ranging Cabinet reshuffle in a bid to bolster his position after Thursday’s poll, which could also see Labour lose control of its last four county councils – Staffordshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
He is under pressure to clear out Cabinet Ministers accused of abusing their expenses, including Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon and Pensions Secretary James Purnell.
Speculation is mounting at Westminster that he may reach out to the Liberal Democrats, possibly by offering a Cabinet job to the party’s Treasury spokesman Vince Cable, in a bid to wrong foot the Tories and breathe new life into his Government.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage yesterday said he hoped for an electoral “earthquake” to change Britain’s relations with Europe.
“If UKIP can cause an earthquake next Thursday, if we can really send a loud and clear message to the big party leaders, I would like them to go into the next general election promising us, the British people, the right that we can have a referendum to decide whether we are part of this Union or not.” Turnout in the European elections is predicted to fall to as low as 20 per cent in some parts of the country, increasing the chance fringe parties will do well.
The far-right BNP was last night said to be shifting virtually all its activists to the North-west in a bid to get party leader Nick Griffin elected in that region.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Express can reveal that MEPs have voted themselves a pay rise that will see British MEPs take home almost 30 per cent more.
The pay of a British MEP will rise from £64,766 to £83,636 this month after the Parliament voted to adopt a single pay rate for all MEPs.
They are also entitled to an extra £271 for every day they turn up to work, along with tens of thousands of pounds a year in expenses. They pay an EU tax rate of 15 per cent.
In March the Parliament, including the majority of British MEPs, voted to keep details of their expenses secret.
Mats Persson, of the think tank Open Europe, said: “It’s very disappointing to see so many MEPs who pride themselves on working for more transparency and honesty in the EU, hypocritically voting to keep their own expenses secret.
“It’s precisely this type of double standard that makes the public lose faith in politicians.
“Unlike the disgraced MPs in Westminster, MEPs in Brussels can spend their allowances on holidays, duck ponds, moats, mortgages or whatever takes their fancy, safe in the knowledge that neither the media nor taxpayers will ever find out.”
A spokesman for the European Parliament said the rise in salary for British MEPs was a result of the weak pound.
