GO NOW: Labour MPs tell Brown
GORDON Brown was last night on the brink of being overthrown in an unprecedented Labour uprising.
Around 100 Labour MPs were ready to sign a letter circulated by email, urging the Prime Minister to quit – for the sake of the country.
The brutal coup attempt began to snowball earlier yesterday after the vengeful shock resignation of Cabinet Minister Hazel Blears.
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She quit the Government on the eve of today’s critical Euro and local elections in a calculated bid to cause the maximum damage to Mr Brown, becoming the fourth minister to resign in a sensational 24 hours.
Communities Secretary Ms Blears made clear her desire to destabilise Mr Brown by hitting the campaign trail yesterday wearing a brooch bearing the words “Rocking The Boat”.
In an increasingly febrile atmosphere of plotting at Westminster, Labour rebels claimed at least 80 backbenchers had already promised to sign the message urging the Prime Minister to go.
In a demonstration of open mutiny, the architects of the plot leaked their letter to journalists. Their email said: “Dear Gordon, over the last 12 years in government, and before, you have made an enormous contribution to this country and to the Labour Party, and this is widely acknowledged.
“However, we are writing now because we believe that in the current political situation, you can best serve the Labour Party and the country by stepping down as party leader and Prime Minister. And so allowing the party to find a new leader to take us into the next general election.”
...Get down to the Palace, ask for a dissolution, call an election
The plotters believe up to 100 MPs, enough to trigger a Labour leadership contest, will back the mutiny as soon as polls close tonight. They believe this will tip dithering ministers to tell the PM to quit.
Yesterday Mr Brown’s attempt to reshuffle his Cabinet appeared to be derailed, with Chancellor Alistair Darling and others said to be resisting any move to switch their jobs.
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Friends of Mr Darling insisted he was determined to continue at the Treasury despite being damaged by the expenses row.
He and other ministers are understood to be particularly outraged at the prospect of Cabinet bruiser Ed Balls getting the Chancellor’s job.
In a sign of growing desperation, Mr Brown was reported to have asked old foe John Reid to return as Home Secretary.
Mr Reid is understood to have declined.
Mr Brown is braced for Labour’s worst election trouncing in a century today in a backlash over MPs’ expenses and blunders on the economy. Labour could even slump to fourth place, behind the Tories, Lib Dems and Ukip.
Last night senior Labour backbencher Barry Sheerman joined those openly criticising the Prime Minister.
He said: “At the end of the day you alienate your Parliamentary party at your peril.”
Mr Sheerman said many in the party harboured a “deep resentment” about his decision to make a key policy announcement about Parliamentary expenses on YouTube rather than in the House of Commons.
Former minister Lord Falconer hinted the leadership battle may begin as polls close.
The former Lord Chancellor declined to back Mr Brown in a BBC interview, and admitted he agreed with a newspaper article calling for the Prime Minister to stand down but did not want a leadership change “today”.
He was later seen in conversation with Brown detractor Charles Clarke over coffee.
Westminster sources said the coup attempt was formulated a year ago, but was postponed when the banks crisis erupted.
Many Labour MPs and ministers are convinced their party will be destroyed at a general election next year if Mr Brown is not forced out of office.
The plotters want Health Secretary Alan Johnson – an easy-going former postman untainted by the expenses scandal – to replace Mr Brown.
He was forced to deny he was angling for the job yesterday, saying “absolutely no one” could do the job better than the current Prime Minister.
Mr Brown came under savage attack during angry clashes in the Commons. Tory leader David Cameron urged him to “get down to the Palace, ask for a dissolution, call an election.” And Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg declared “Labour is finished.”
