EMBATTLED PRIME minister Gordon Brown was last night banking on the fears of shell-shocked Labour MPs to see off a rebellion against his leadership in the aftermath of the Labour Party’s worst election performance in almost 100 years.
Labour plunged to historic defeats – at the hands of Alex Salmond’s SNP in Scotland and to David Cameron’s Conservatives in Wales – in a European contest that saw Britain’s governing party squeezed into a humiliating third place behind the United Kingdom Independence Party, while the far-right British National Party also won two seats in the new European Parliament.
Despite an abysmal 15.8 per cent share of the vote, however, Labour MPs staged a show of support for Mr Brown when he met his critics head-on at what had been billed a potentially make-or-break meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party at Westminster.
While the meeting continued, the newly appointed defence secretary Bob Ainsworth said the prime minister had been “received very, very well by the mainstream of the parliamentary party” and that Mr Brown’s critics did not constitute even “a significant minority”.
While government whips had pulled out all the stops in an effort to manage last night’s meeting, early reports said that former ministers Charles Clarke and Tom Harris were among a predictable group of four or five MPs who told Mr Brown he should stand aside.
At the same time, the Guardiannewspaper was reporting that Mr Brown could still face a secret ballot in which MPs would have the opportunity to say whether he should be able to continue as leader. Senior backbench MP Barry Sheerman had formally requested a secret ballot to establish the true level of Mr Brown's support and, according to this report, it was thought the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), Tony Lloyd – despite being publicly loyal to the prime minister – might consent to Mr Sheerman's request.
However, Mr Sheerman later told Channel 4 Newsthat while his request would be considered, he was not expecting it to proceed. He also conceded that the "overwhelming" sentiment at the PLP meeting appeared to back the prime minister.
Efforts were also continuing to gather signatures for a letter asking Mr Brown to stand aside of his own accord, but with plans to publish only if 50 or more MPs signed up.
Mr Brown’s survival strategy, meanwhile, was spelt out by Lord Mandelson, who said Labour voters had not switched allegiance but rather stayed at home.
In his address to the PLP, Mr Brown also reportedly hammered home the analysis of various polling experts that – while dire for Labour – the election results had seen the Conservative vote “stand still”, showing that Mr Cameron has not yet “closed the deal” with voters.
That analysis could work to Mr Brown’s advantage, or, alternatively, persuade MPs they might have a better chance of saving their seats with an alternative leader.
However, one critic, Graham Allan MP, summed up the party’s dilemma when he said many of his colleagues wanted change but were afraid of a process that could displace Mr Brown while also tipping Labour into an early general election.