BRITAIN:LABOUR MARKED Gordon Brown's first year as prime minister yesterday with a humiliating fifth place behind the Greens and the British National Party in the Henley byelection.
Mr Brown attempted to shrug off the collapse of Labour's vote - down more than 11 points from 2005 to a derisory 3.07 per cent - insisting that "byelections come and byelections go". But Conservative leader David Cameron hailed the Henley result as proof that people now saw his party as "an alternative government" they could believe in.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg also suggested Henley showed Mr Brown's days in Downing Street were numbered, as Lord Levy - Tony Blair's former fundraiser - told the Labour Party it should "seriously consider" ditching the prime minister. "I certainly would have to say that this is something that needs to be very seriously considered," he told the BBC's Newsnight programme.
Lord Levy has no influence among Labour MPs, who as yet show no inclination to force a leadership crisis, much less have any sense of who might be a credible replacement for the man elected unopposed just 12 months ago. However, the peer undoubtedly reflected the rising alarm felt inside the party yesterday as yet another opinion poll found two-thirds of voters now consider Mr Brown an electoral "liability".
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell admitted Mr Brown had faced "a very tough year". And while a widely rumoured cabinet reshuffle was a matter for the prime minister, she added that prominent Blairites currently on the backbencheswere "undoubtedly people of talent".
On a visit to Manchester, Mr Brown maintained: "Of course we have to listen to what people say.
"But my job is to improve our public services, to get the economy moving forward, to make sure that in the health service and education people have the best services that they want, and I'm going to continue doing that."
Speaking outside his London home, Mr Cameron said: "It is obviously a disastrous result for the Labour Party, but I think I am right in saying it is the first time in a long time when there has been a contest between Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats when there has been a swing to the Conservatives. I think what we are seeing is that people who voted for all sorts of different parties - including the Liberal Democrats - are now looking at the Conservatives and saying 'Yes, this is an alternative to the government that I can believe in'." Conservative candidate John Howell won the race to succeed Boris Johnson with 19,976 votes - a majority of about 10,000 over second-placed Lib Dem candidate Stephen Kearney.