BRITAIN: Gordon Brown made clear yesterday that Tony Blair's coded offer to leave Downing Street within the next 12 months was not good enough.
Allies of the chancellor of the exchequer said Mr Brown was demanding that the prime minister set a timetable for his departure and make the details public.
Mr Brown also wants Mr Blair to rein in the chancellor's critics, such as Stephen Byers and Alan Milburn, who have been making speeches and writing newspaper articles arguing that Blairite reforms be continued after he has stepped down. This, Mr Brown hopes, will ensure his stable and orderly transition to power.
Mr Brown's unhappiness at the way No 10 is trying to engineer Mr Blair's departure became clear during a day of high drama at Westminster, in which No 10 gave vital ground by openly backing a statement from cabinet minister David Miliband that Mr Blair would be gone within a year.
He is the most senior minister to make such a claim, and No 10's endorsement means Mr Blair has given ground in the past week since vowing to say no more on his departure date.
The developments came as the scale of party unrest and divisions was underlined by a series of letters from coalitions of MPs.
Two former Blairite loyalists, Sion Simon and Chris Bryant, have drafted a letter calling on the prime minister to stand down now. It has the support of six parliamentary private secretaries and Tom Watson, the defence minister and former treasury whip. Downing Street said last night that it had received the letter, but that it had been sent to a random fax machine, without no warning phone call or covering note. It was marked private and confidential.
A separate letter from the 2005 intake has also been drawn up, with the West Ham MP Lyn Brown seen as an important figure.
A letter with much broader cross-party support is also being drafted which is expected to demand that Mr Blair either leaves now, or before the spring Welsh and Scottish elections. At least 80 MPs are prepared to go public over this letter, though some others will refuse to declare themselves. This is expected to be put to Mr Blair by the end of the week. The aim is that a party grandee or delegation will visit the prime minister and tell him privately his support has eroded permanently.
In a bid to shore up the prime minister's increasingly perilous position, government whips secured the support of over 60 Labour MPs welcoming the statement by Mr Miliband that Mr Blair will leave office within 12 months.
The letter said it welcomed Mr Miliband's claim that there would be a stable and orderly transition leading to a new leader by conference 2007. That gave the party the certainty it needed. "We must now end damaging speculation about the leadership and turn our attention to building a progressive future for our country."
One of the organisers of the letter, left of centre former minister Karen Buck said Mr Blair "will be gone within months" and urged people not to turn an "orderly transition into a crisis of regicide". Despite the pressure mounting on Downing Street, Mr Blair was still refusing last night to cave in to demands that he make public the promise to go within a year. His aides fearing that it will terminally undermine his remaining authority.
Mr Blair's closest allies insist that the prime minister in the spring gave Mr Brown a clear written timetable of his plans for retirement for next year. They also insist senior MPs such as Mr Milburn cannot be silenced in any debate about the party's future.
In a sign of the naked power struggle raging at the top of Labour, Mr Blair's allies also pointed the finger at supporters of Mr Brown for leaking an embarrassing memo drawn up in Downing Street in April setting out Mr Blair's exit strategy including slots on the BBC children's show Blue Peter, the religious TV programme Songs of Praise and a farewell tour designed to embed Blairism.