Get Gordon: the backbench rebels with a single cause
Labour's conspirators believe 100 MPs are ripe for revolt
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Independent Minds
When you are plotting to sack your leader, it is important that you are seen to be doing your duty. The proper thing for Labour MPs yesterday was to be out on the doorsteps, trying to persuade voters to head for the polling booths.
As MPs fanned out around the country, Westminster's corridors and bars – where plots are traditionally hatched and abandoned – were deserted. And what had previously been a conspiracy by email turned into a conspiracy by mobile phone.
In between conversations with hostile voters, the plotters had their ears clamped to handsets, encouraging wavering backbenchers to rebel.
In most places, the electors' reaction was utterly discouraging for Labour, as people who have turned out for the party in election after election refused to make eye contact and became strangely evasive about their voting intentions.
As the voters blew cold, the conspiracy heated up. "I have found people shifting their view about Gordon," one of the conspirators told The Independent yesterday, after a series of telephone conversations with fellow MPs about what they were hearing from the voters. "They are saying we are not going to survive unless there's movement at the top of the party."
He added: "There's a huge level of dissatisfaction not just in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party], but in the wider party as well. There are over 100 MPs dissatisfied with our direction. Whether they are willing to put their heads over the parapet is another matter."
One former minister who wants to see Gordon Brown replaced by Alan Johnson said: "It's just awful to campaign for Brown when you have got no belief in him.
"People are coming up and saying we should have got rid of him last year. But Brown doesn't care about the party – he only cares about himself. He is delusional if he doesn't realise what's going on."
Another ex-minister said: "I don't think that Gordon can survive now, and I have signed the letter calling for his resignation. I think there will be a sufficient number of names to force him to step down."
He said he had been approached for his signature by the former home secretary Charles Clarke, but added that Mr Clarke is not acting alone: "There are lots of people collecting names."
The plan is still to present the Prime Minister with a letter bearing the signatures of at least 50 Labour MPs, calling on him to resign. The malcontents want to hand it over as early as today, but could hold back until Sunday, after Mr Brown has returned from the D-Day anniversary celebration in Normandy.
No one expects the letter, on its own, to drive Mr Brown out of office, but the conspirators hope it will act as a catalyst that will induce the Cabinet – notably Jack Straw or Alan Johnson – to tell him that he has to go.
One conspirator, speaking with the sound of an election loudspeaker in the background, said: "While the peasants will continue their revolt with their pitchforks, the real people who need to step up to the plate are Cabinet ministers. We need people with courage and conviction to come forward.
"There are a huge number of people in the Parliamentary Labour Party who want to ensure the leadership issue is dealt with speedily and respectfully."
Gordon Brown's allies have already given the rebels notice that, no matter how bad the results of yesterday's vote prove to be, the Prime Minister intends to stay on. In an attempt to get their retaliation in early, the Chief Whip, Nick Brown, gave out the names of MPs he believed were implicated in the plot.
One of the names they gave out was Paul Farrelly, MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, who said yesterday that he had neither signed, nor even seen, any letter calling on Mr Brown to resign. He suspected that the reason he was named was that Mr Brown, who has been personally ringing backbench Labour MPs asking for support, had called him twice, but he had not returned the call because was busy with a last-ditch effort to try to save Labour from losing control of Staffordshire Council.
Furious, he said: "This is yet again bad behaviour by the clique around Gordon Brown. They never learn, and it's totally unacceptable. They should really reflect on whether they are fit, morally and in practice, to lead the Labour Party. They have learnt nothing from the Damian McBride fiasco in shoving names out indiscriminately just because some people may be privately critical of the Government or of government policy.
"It's a bunker and siege mentality that will lead the Labour Party off a very steep cliff, and things have to change quickly."
Two others named by Downing Street, the former Cabinet ministers Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers, were also not involved in the plotting, since both were on separate business trips in the Middle East yesterday. Mr Clarke, who is one of the instigators, was not on Downing Street's list of suspects.
John McDonnell, a left-wing Labour MP, also complained yesterday about "dirty tricks" orchestrated in Downing Street. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr McDonnell said: "I am writing to ask you to ensure that your office desists from this briefing activity. It is not my style to undertake this type of covert attack on a colleague."
And the powerbrokers who will determine if they succeed
Jack Straw
The Justice Secretary is the most senior of the "men in grey suits" who could tell Gordon Brown to quit for the good of the party. Friends say he has no intention of doing that. But the oldest Cabinet member is famous for sensing which way the political wind is blowing. Were he to tell Brown his time was up, the PM would find it impossible to ignore him.
Alan Johnson
It is said that in politics the assassin never inherits the crown, so as the man most likely to succeed Gordon Brown the Health Secretary will keep well away from any move to force him out. "He is doing the job and there is absolutely no one who could do [it] better," Johnson said, even as plotters were collecting signatures calling on Brown to quit.
Alistair Darling
The Chancellor has been a good friend and ally of Brown for many years but it is said that he will refuse to be moved to another Cabinet post, forcing Brown to keep him where he is or sack him. Brown has to assert his authority over his Cabinet if he is to survive. His old friend could be the obstacle that makes the reshuffle go horribly wrong from the start.
Jon Cruddas
Although the Dagenham MP has never been a minister, he has a strong following in all sections of the party. Were he to stand as a stalking horse candidate – a plan his allies deny – he could win support from dozens of backbenchers with his bid to reconnect with grassroots voters. Given the turbulence in Labour ranks, he could even win the top job.
Harriet Harman
The surprise winner of the Labour deputy leadership contest is among the party's most powerful figures.
Her close links to Gordon Brown make it almost certain she would not deliver the "black spot", but she would be well placed to relay to him the despair among backbenchers. Could that message persuade Brown to quit?
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Comments
They may have used to but they are now more right wing than the conservatives!
Harriet Harman herself former chief of staff at liberty is a hypocrite considering once she got into parliament she voted opposite to us true lefties and evern 'liberty' all the way!
http://geocities.com/cronyblatcher/the_
We lack leadership but I see so evidence to judge whether left or rightist polices would improve the situation.
I suspect that an EFFECTIVE competent centrist government is what we need. We have an ineffective incompetent supposedly slightly left of centre government but who, in fact, were slightly to the right financially and, in spite of "high tax Britain" myths, keep UK tax at a lower level that most of the leading European states. We failed to build up reserves for the hard times
It is pathetic to watch and listen as defenders state how good and successful they has been. Brown destroyed our pensions, destroyed our savings, destroyed our retirements, destroyed our jobs and ruined our overall standards of living. He and his rotten Government have wiped decades off the progress of our country. His legacy is a broken society, poverty and future years of austerity.
He has successfully buried his obnoxious Party in the dustbin of history for the next 50 years.
for this, though I voted BNP yesterday, if the reformation is rigorously continued, he will earn my voting support next time
We need complete transparency on MP's pay and expenses. We need complete transparency on MP's cosy little Directorships and other renumerations. We need the whips power severely curtailed.
I think the Swedish system of providing MP's a standard flat close to parliament is a very good idea. These could be furnished to a reasonable standard but if they wish to enhance them they do so at their own expense. Perhaps the constiuency offices should be provided centrally by subcontracting local councils to provide these in a standard fashion. After all MP's have proved themselves complete untrustworthy in their handling of public money so how can we trust them to run the country competently.
1. that the circus venue is unnecessary given 21st century communications systems, they could in other words communicate instead of commuting - and thereby incidentally also set a good example to others;
2. that they are in fact surplus, the same communications abilities, enhanced where and when necessary, enable direct democracy, ipso facto rendering 'representation' of people, inevitably mainly by snouts, an obsolete as well as dysfunctional practice
http://geocities.com/cronyblatcher/the_
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_dem
Gordon Brown is now a liability to his party, the government and the country. As he descents into political madness his henchmen are still practising the 'dark arts', smearing and briefing against their own colleagues as the number of his supporters dwindles and power slips through his fingers.
His 'son of the manse' guise has now slipped and his real values have been revealed, his serial incompetence as Chancellor was a significant factor in the current economic crisis, his lack of idea's, vision or leadership have now been openly stated by The Guardian, his personal qualities of deceit and treachery revealed by the way he has treated Chancellor Darling.
Mountebank Brown is finding his past has caught up with him at last!
Faced with the probability of a successful coup, said reforming force was obliged to counter aggressively (and effectively) or resign. It chose to do the former and as a result (**so far**) Britain may no longer need either a Cromwell, or the BNP.
It matters not a fig what is the history of the actors involved, as long as they continue to diligently root out all of the rotting remains of quisling Blatcherism
So we are the "peasants" while those supposedly representing our interests are the "real people"?
Sick
I should very much like to know if or is it when the Labour Party replaces Mr Brown do they expect everything to change over night? Who is this new Messiah that is going to ressurrect the Labour Party?
or as I suspect do these so called rebels hope to take the PUBLIC spotlight off this most disgracefull expenses scandle? Do not worry all you politicians out their this expense gravy train is fast coming into the ststion where you can all get off, because rest assured at the next election several will not be getting a return ticket. We the public have had just quite enough.
Alphonsus123