Byers calls for Brown to go

Published on Monday 8 June 2009 20:34

ARCH Blairite Stephen Byers tonight called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to stand down, saying he was not the leader to win the next general election.

Speaking during a debate on the future of the Labour Party, Mr Byers said: "We need a leader who can win for Labour at the next general election and not take us to a humiliating defeat. Gordon Brown is not that leader.

"Gordon Brown knows the real price that will be paid for a Labour defeat.

"For those people, families and communities who need a Labour Government to protect and promote their interests, now is the time for Gordon Brown to stand down as Labour leader and Prime Minister."

Mr Byers said: "I believe the next general election can be won by Labour but it can't be won if we continue as we have been doing over the recent 12 months.

"We have got to listen to what the voters said last Thursday."

He attacked those who said the party was "getting on with the job", saying such a sentiment "simply fails to recognise the scale of the challenge we now face".

Mr Byers said: "To hear people say we are getting on with the job is an insult, we have to do better than that.

"It fails to recognise the monumental scale of the electoral rejection that we had last Thursday.

"For Labour to get 16% of the national share of the vote is a disgrace and a humiliation.

"For Labour to come second in Wales to the Conservatives for the first time in 90 years is a humiliation.

"For Labour to lose to the SNP in Scotland is a humiliation.

"And for Labour, for its failure to engage with the electorate and to allow in the BNP, is not just a humiliation but it is a disgrace."

Mr Byers told the meeting of the Progress thinktank he had never spoken in public about Mr Brown's leadership before.

He said he had supported Mr Brown when Tony Blair stood down.

"That leadership is now questioned not by one section or group but from across the party and those who claim otherwise are in denial about the scale and the extent of the concern that exists," he said.

He said a Labour leader and Prime Minister must recognise Labour party members as "assets to be valued" and must see Labour MPs as "colleagues to be worked with and not reps to be briefed against".

"We need someone who can voice the concerns of the British people and who can identify with their needs, a leader who is decisive and not timid, who can inspire and take our country though these difficult times.

"And we need a leader who can win for Labour at the next general election and not take us to a humiliating defeat. Gordon Brown is not that leader."