Miliband blow to Brown’s frantic rescue operation

GORDON Brown’s hopes of rebuilding his shattered authority were dashed yesterday.

CRUNCH MEETING Gordon Brown met with his Cabinet earlier in the week in last ditch talks CRUNCH MEETING: Gordon Brown met with his Cabinet earlier in the week in last-ditch talks

Foreign Secretary David Miliband undermined the fragile Labour truce by refusing to deny having considered joining the stream of resignations from the Government.

And he risked infuriating Downing Street further by anointing new Home Secretary Alan Johnson as the “leading contender” to replace the Prime Minister.

The Foreign Secretary’s incendiary remarks came as Mr Brown struggled to shut down the hugely-damaging row over his leadership.

Cabinet Ministers – with fixed smiles – paraded at Number 10 for a photocall intended to show that the Government is pulling together following the botched revolt that nearly ejected the Prime Minister.

The media blitz came after Mr Brown survived a torrid showdown at a meeting of Labour MPs and peers at Westminster on Monday night, with rebels ducking out of forcing him from office despite Labour’s humiliating 15 per cent vote share in the Euro election.

But the stage-managed display of unity was blown apart by Mr Miliband’s refusal to deny that he had been on the brink of telling the Prime Minister to quit.

Westminster sources revealed that, as late as Monday, the Foreign Secretary was among ministers ready to tell Mr Brown to stand down.

In a BBC interview yesterday, Mr Miliband dismissed suggestions he was “flirting” with the idea of quitting the Cabinet with a joke.

“Flirtation is dangerous for married men, I’m not going to get into that,” he said.

He then tipped his Cabinet colleague Mr Johnson to succeed Mr Brown.

“The leading contender, Alan Johnson, is backing the Prime Minister to the hilt. So that is that,” Mr Miliband said.

And he further undermined Mr Brown by admitting Labour faced a struggle to win the next election.

“The odds are stacked against us when we are trying to win a fourth term,” he said.

Mr Miliband went on to insist that Labour’s leadership issue was “settled.”

“The Parliamentary Labour Party has reached a settled view about the leadership,” Mr Miliband said. “The Labour Party does not want a new leader, there is no vacancy, there is no challenger.” Labour’s unity was further ruffled when former Cabinet Minister James Purnell broke his silence yesterday after quitting the Government last week.

The former Work and Pensions Minister refused to apologise for urging Mr Brown to stand aside.

“I just knew I couldn’t wake up on Friday and say something I didn’t think was the case. I said what I said, I stand by it,” he said.

“I can be happy if I turn out to be proved wrong and Gordon Brown leads Labour to victory at the next election.”

And Mr Brown was further embarrassed yesterday when one of his senior backbench supporters savaged his ability to communicate with voters.

Treasury Committee chairman John McFall said: “The Prime Minister needs to have a better communications strategy from Downing Street.

“He needs to speak in simpler language to the electorate.”

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