UK:ATTEMPTS TO destabilise Gordon Brown's premiership are continuing in the build-up to Labour's Manchester conference, although the plotters as yet seem far short of the 70 MPs needed to force a leadership contest, writes Frank Millar, London Editor
Mr Brown sacked a government whip and a party vice-chairman over the weekend after they joined more than a dozen Labour MPs in a series of public calls on the prime minister to either quit or submit himself for re-election.
Unable so far to provoke a cabinet putsch against the premier, the rebels are invoking party rules requiring nominations prior to the annual conference where there is no leadership vacancy.
Government chief whip Geoff Hoon insisted yesterday this practice of formally re-electing a sitting leader has not been followed for years. Nonetheless, tomorrow's meeting of the national executive committee is expected to reject calls for the issue of nomination papers to all MPs.
Some of those who have requested nomination papers calculate that if 70 or more MPs declined to renominate Mr Brown, that would be seen as a vote of no confidence which would then prompt key ministers to advise the prime minister his time was up.
The chairman of the parliamentary Labour party, Tony Lloyd, dismissed the latest outbreak of dissent as "a bit of a sideshow" and declared himself confident that neither "a stalking horse" challenger nor a real leadership contender would emerge.
Supporters of the prime minister saw the call for the issue of nomination papers as evidence of the weakness of critics dismissed as disaffected Blairites.
Frustration with the failure of cabinet ministers to move against Mr Brown was openly admitted by former minister Frank Field, who is among those to have requested nomination papers and who yesterday accused the Brown camp of leaking news of the move in an effort "to smash the efforts to get a gauge of parliamentary opinion".
Demanding that the cabinet find the courage to save Labour from feared electoral annihilation, Mr Field said: "This is the only strategy left to us to actively get a change in leadership. Given we haven't got a cabinet stuffed with people who would win political VCs [Victoria Crosses], this strategy is forced upon MPs because the cabinet has . . . failed to carry out one of its key roles."
Foreign secretary David Miliband, who set out his own leadership stall in July, again said he expected Mr Brown to lead Labour into the next election and that he disagreed with those calling for a leadership contest.
Mr Brown may have been less than overwhelmed by the support of business secretary John Hutton, who said he was "not going to condemn" colleagues who wanted "to have that debate".
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hutton said it was the duty of all ministers to rally behind the prime minister.
When asked whether Mr Brown was likely to lead Labour into a general election and win it, Mr Hutton replied: "I believe he can do that."
The latest pre-conference poll, meanwhile, by YouGov for the Sunday Times, put the Conservatives on 46 per cent, 19 points clear of Labour on 27 per cent.