Brown secures the crown but he must wait still longer to take power

By Andrew Grice and Colin Brown

Thursday, 17 May 2007

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Gordon Brown will be formally confirmed today as the next leader of the Labour Party and as Tony Blair's successor as Prime Minister.

The Chancellor crossed the finishing line last night when it became clear that the left-wing MP John McDonnell would not be able to muster the backing of 45 Labour MPs needed to secure a place on the ballot paper.

At 6pm last night, Labour announced that Mr McDonnell had been nominated by only 29 Labour MPs, while Mr Brown had secured the backing of 307 of 354. Mr McDonnell conceded defeat at 8.30pm yesterday when another MP signalled his intention to back Mr Brown.

Although Mr Brown has won the leadership in an unopposed "coronation", he will have to wait almost six weeks before he moves into 10 Downing Street. Mr Blair could now face pressure to stand down earlier than 27 June, the date he announced last week. "He is in office, not in power," one Labour source said, in a deliberate echo of Norman Lamont's wounding description of John Major's ailing Tory government.

As Mr Blair had dinner with President George Bush on his final trip to Washington as Prime Minister, his allies insisted he would not stand down early. "He has work to do, he will be at full speed up to the wire," one said.

Mr Blair is determined to attend two important summits next month - a meeting of G8 leaders at which he will press Mr Bush to join global moves to tackle climate change, and an EU summit which will try to revive the EU constitution rejected by referendums in France and the Netherlands two years ago.

Blair aides pointed out that the "handover period" between American presidents lasts for two months and said the six-week delay would allow the "stable and orderly transition" that the Prime Minister and Chancellor both wanted.

Labour's leadership election rules mean that Mr Brown, as the only runner in the leadership race, will not face a confirmatory ballot. But he will still have to attend at least 10 hustings meetings with Labour and trade union members around Britain.

The prime minister-designate will now fine-tune his campaign so that he speaks more to the country than to his party, listening to voters' concerns and outlining his agenda for government. He will also use the period to hold talks with the Civil Service on his plans for when he takes over.

Nominations for the Labour leadership and deputy leadership close officially at lunchtime today but after Mr McDonnell made a last-minute appeal for Labour MPs to nominate him so that a contest could still go ahead, accusing Mr Brown of using "machine politics" to steamroller his campaign, he threw in the towel.

Earlier he said: "We are up against a machine where Gordon is phoning around individual members to put pressure on people. That has worked. We are hoping in the last few hours, Labour MPs will give our members the vote. This is an appeal on behalf of the rank and file members to nominate me."

Although Michael Meacher, another potential leadership candidate, stood aside for Mr McDonnell, few of his supporters transferred to Mr McDonnell, who claimed some Brown supporters had originally signed up for Mr Meacher.

"That might have been a move to stop me standing," Mr McDonnell said. "There was a core of Brown supporters in Michael Meacher's total."

Despite the overwhelming support for Mr Brown among Labour MPs, there were signs of unease yesterday among prominent Blairites who want to make sure he continues the reforms of the outgoing Prime Minister. John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, welcomed Mr Brown's public support for the reforms but put pressure on him to live up to his pledges.

Mr Hutton told a CBI conference: "Our values can only be maintained in the decades ahead if we are prepared to continue radical reform ... we must be prepared to see through the fundamental change we have begun."

Mr Milburn called for an extension of "competition" from alternative providers of services such as the private and voluntary sectors - including for GPs who fail to tackle health inequalities. He said local authorities should be freed from much of the central government's control over their funding and activities.

Mr Brown was also warned that he could face a wave of strikes by public-sector workers within weeks of taking over as Prime Minister because of growing anger over pay, job losses and cuts in services.

Union leaders representing civil servants, postal workers, nurses, teachers and health staff said they could all be involved in some form of industrial action. They are discussing plans to co-ordinate action, raising the prospect of a damaging conflict towards the end of the summer.

The long goodbye

There are 42 days to Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister...

Today John Prescott chairs Cabinet, while Tony Blair is in Washington. Nominations for leader and deputy leader close at 12.30pm. Brown expected to be declared leader.

20 May Brown joins hustings tour for deputy leadership candidates in Coventry.

21 May Hustings at Westminster for MPs for deputy leadership and Brown.

26 May Hustings run by the unions in Bristol.

27 May Hustings in Bradford for Brown while Blair in Africa as part of his 'farewell' tour.

30 May Brown at the deputy leadership hustings in Leicester.

2 June Hustings in Glasgow.

3 June Hustings for unions in Newcastle.

6 June Blair attends G8 summit in Germany.

9 June Hustings in Cardiff.

10 June Labour young members' hustings Oxford.

16 June Hustings London.

21 June Blair at EU summit in Germany.