Brown calls Blair in to No 10 for secret talks as crisis mounts
PM's announcement of national plan for Britain came day after hour-long one-to-one meeting
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Gordon Brown has called Tony Blair into Downing Street as he desperately tries to rescue his leadership from a series of crises. The meeting on Thursday lasted more than an hour, coming amid the continuing outcry over MPs' expenses and warnings from ministers that Labour faces its worst performance in decades at next month's local and European elections.
There was also continued speculation that Mr Brown could face a challenge to his leadership in the wake of the double poll on 4 June.
The timing of the meeting, with Mr Brown's future in doubt, triggered talk in Westminster that the premier was asking Mr Blair for help. Sources said that they did not discuss election timing or strategy, but the conversation did cover domestic politics. The day after the talks, it emerged that Mr Brown will launch a "national plan for Britain" as part of his fightback.
In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, Nick Clegg predicts that Mr Brown's troubles are so bad that Lib Dem MPs will outnumber Labour within a decade because the governing party has lost the "contest of ideas".
After another day of turmoil in Westminster, Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, yesterday issued a thinly veiled warning to the Prime Minister that if he is preparing to sack her in the forthcoming reshuffle, she has the support of cabinet ministers. Friends of Ms Blears said she was feeling "emboldened", despite criticism of her expenses claims, after talking to her constituents on the doorstep in Salford, and that she had been "delighted" to receive phone calls of support from members of the Cabinet. The warning followed Mr Brown's condemnation of Ms Blears's failure to pay capital gains tax on her second home as "totally unacceptable". Ms Blears has since sent a cheque to HM Revenue & Customs for £13,000.
The Prime Minister initiated the talks with Mr Blair in a phone call that resulted in the invitation to Downing Street last Thursday. It is believed the two met about three times last year, but this is the first time they have held face-to-face talks this year. They speak on the telephone about once a month.
They discussed Mr Blair's role as Middle East envoy, but the discussion inevitably strayed into domestic politics, a source said. A Downing Street spokesman added: "We never discuss meetings. We have repeatedly said they have a good relationship."
Some ministers have suggested Mr Brown should go to the country in October, after a summer of setting out constitutional reforms to clean up Parliament, although No 10 sources tried to pour cold water on the reports.
Yesterday, the IoS established that Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, claimed more than £80,000 in second-home expenses over four years when he was an MP, even though his constituency was within 50 miles of Westminster, as we reveal today.
It also emerged that John Wick, the former SAS officer who handed over MPs' expense claims to The Daily Telegraph, was involved in Tory fundraising, although a Tory source insisted it was "on the fringes". It is believed Mr Wick was involved in the Carlton Club political committee, which has raised more than £400,000 for the Tories since Mr Cameron became leader.
As the expenses scandal continued to rage, Sir Peter Viggers, the Tory MP for Gosport, said he was "ashamed and humiliated" to have claimed for a duck house and island on expenses. He described this as a "ridiculous and grave error of judgement", adding that the ducks had never liked the feature and it was no longer being used.
Ian McCartney, the former Labour chairman, announced he was standing down at the next election as MP for Makerfield – because of "health problems" – within days of his disclosure that he paid back nearly £15,000 of his own expenses claims last year. He had purchased, at the taxpayers' expense, an 18-piece dinner set, champagne flutes and a £700 dining table. And Andrew MacKay, Mr Cameron's former parliamentary aide, announced he was standing down after becoming a "distraction".
The latest announcements take to eight the number of MPs stepping down at the next general election. Quitting then not only saves their parties from bruising by-elections but also ensures each up to £64,000 in "resettlement grant" cash, paid for by the taxpayer.
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Comments
That neatly demonstrates the problem with the LibDems. They SHOULD be racing to organise themselves to replace a mortally wounded Labour at the imminent election, instead, Clegg is doing his Mr Micawber act, whilst half of his party are still hallucinating about a LibLab pact with some juicy ministerial opportunities and "Gordon's promise" to consider PR.
Perpetual losers !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnqCUvGh
After all this, the ducks were not impressed anyway. Elsewhere, another MP has rabbit problems, you could not make this stuff up !
For the rest of the country, I feel sorry for you; but if you can do it, emigrate while you still can.
The UK is a dead duck for ten to fifteen years and any children born into the country already have a massive national debt to repay before they even start school let alone graduate university.
Brown might have just done enough damage to send the UK into permanent decline.
The UK is too over populated to feed itself...run!
if 300 MP's have claimed in a manner which in the rest of society would be questioned, i.e. fraudulently, such a response is necessary.
total number sacked as i read it is NIL. NIL means NIL. pathetic.
unintentional wrongdoing is famous north of the border, it seems the southern cousins are catching up to that ruse and playing the dumb card well.
When he is dumped on 5th June, the entire country will cheer. His legacy will be as a despotic Pretender, who should never have been Leader, and who was booted out of power as the most calamitous failure in the history of British politics.
Things go missing. It's to be expected. Even at the Pentagon. Last October, the Pentagon's inspector general reported that the military's accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. In all, nearly $8 billion in weapons were AWOL.
At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world, there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion. -Edwin Hubbel Chapin, minister and orator (1814-1880)
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
"Bring a goat into the house!" advises the Rabbi. "And come back next week to tell me how it's going?"
"Oh Rabbi, it's three times worse! The goat - well, it's insanitary! And it kicks and butts everyone and the wife's mother is complaining!"
"Take the goat out of the house again" says the Rabbi. "And drop by in a few days?"
"Oh Rabbi, without the goat, it's paradise in our house, you can't imagine! Thank you, thank you!".
Damn, I'd better check the garden shed - I'll probably find a bunch of MPs in there helping themselves to my tins of old paint - MPs seem to need an awful lot of redecoration doing.
Oh, and they loved their mum.
This is the blind leading the blind, neither of these two are world leaders, just followers, the total Nu-Labs has brought this country to it's knees.
Both House's should be closed and the country controlled by the Military, there are many good officers within the Services, that could run our isle better than these money grabbing devils.
Plus Blair hope's to be the first President of Europe, well he will be at home there regarding expenses, just check out those kicked up to the HoL's.
Blair is also the Middle East envoy, say no more another of his disasters, pack this evil doer of to Rome, they would welcome him there?
Tone probaly rings up laughing his cock off and taking the piss
Arthur Daley meets "Dellboy" Trotter. At least they were funny...
I recall being made redundant in the early 90's from ABB which was the then title of todays Bombardier.. I received a low single figure in the thousands for my troubles in the form of redundancy payment....and what turned out to be, despite my high hopes, much Bull S**t by way of help in finding another job. (I was unemployed for 4 years after this, my age being the main drawback) I recall a conversation with the Union rep before my employment was terminated... if I had quit, I wouldn't even have been able to claim unemployment benefit for some time after the event..yet, a politician can quit and get up-wards of £64.ooo in resettlement help? something is very wrong with that, the more I find out, the more unbearable the stink becomes.
I shudder to imagine the conversation that went on between Blair and Brown...especially now Blair has taken refuge in the catholic religion..I don't know what you folk out there in Indy land think, but as I watch Brown perform, I get a very strange sense of the ethereal, something quite unworldly and insubstantial, as though Brown is somehow unconnected or unattached in some way, he appears to be on the ball but......can't quite put my finger on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnqCUvGh
I seem to recall that their election win was built on spin - and the "newness" of this meant the electorate to some degree believed them. Any out put from these two now can and will only be the same Blair had no substance just great spin and charm - I hope they put their heads together some more as I am sure it will give many happy moments for us.
Hint to Brown - a national plan , HMM you have been in power for 12 years and completely cocked everything up shouldn't you have had one of there 12years ago?
Bungle and Zippy politics at its best - with Jeffrey Mandelson floating about - you could not write this stuff.
The day after the talks, it emerged that Mr Brown will launch a "national plan for Britain" as part of his fightback. No need to fight back. Tony good boxer and he gets tired he calls or winks at the ref to stop the round Then he goes to the Middle East for rest. He visits the Pope. Confesses all the atrocities he committed on behalf on the dead and live British, He cries a lot until the Padre says,? your sins will be washed if you go back to no 10 Drowning Street and 12, and 13 ,1 4, 52, apologize to the tenants of the leaking cash, come back to the battle field then repent there. You may get the chance to see the God like Charlton Heston in Ten Commandments.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
It seems that not only criminal politicians but catholic priest pedophiles are above the law too. This is a frightening situation, where will it all end.
The issue is: control of information, manipulation of the media, opinion-forming.
That's what Blair is good at. That's why Brown has called him in.
Step 1: get the issue of MP expenses off the TV and out of the newspapers.
Blair can do that.
They probably think we won't notice how they're manipulating the way they feed us information.
The best bit is that Brown was imposed on us. Not one single person voted for him as Prime Minister, he was anointed, and has no mandate to be where he is. But seriously, do you like Brown or not?