Gordon Brown's Supporters Hit Back
Gordon Brown was attempting to salvage his last-ditch political relaunch tonight by unveiling energy reforms just a few hours after a senior Labour MP called on the Prime Minister to shape up or agree to "stand down with honour".
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Mr Brown was in Scotland to announce new energy policies including the go-ahead for a major offshore wind farm off Cumbria that could power some 370,000 homes.
The announcements to the Scottish CBI were supposed to be part of a Labour policy revival that began with the announcement of a stamp duty holiday. The political initiative, however, was seized by opponents of the Prime Minister earlier today.
Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, wrote a magazine article and gave a series of broadcast interviews in which he warned his party that it was "destined to disaster" if it continued on its current path.
Mr Clarke said that Labour would not allow Mr Brown to lead it to "utter destruction" at the next election because too many MPs had memories of the party's last long spell in the wilderness.
Ben Bradshaw, the Health Minister, dismissed Mr Clarke’s claims as "Westminster tittle tattle" and said he doubted that Labour colleagues who supported Mr Brown as leader a year ago had already changed their minds.
Mr Clarke, who was axed by Tony Blair as Home Secretary in May 2006 but remains a Labour backbencher, has long been sceptical about a Brown premiership but told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there were two possibilities for the Prime Minister in the coming months.
"The first is for the performance of the Government to improve significantly ... or the second is for Gordon Brown to stand down as Prime Minister with honour and have a proper leadership election to address the proper issues," he said. "Both of those are perfectly reputable courses of action."
-- Timesonline
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