Brown meets with his new cabinet as MPs' revolt falters

Published on Tuesday 9 June 2009 10:06

GORDON Brown was today chairing the first meeting of his new Cabinet safe in the knowledge that the "peasants' revolt" against his premiership had collapsed.

The much-touted backbench rebellion failed to materialise when Labour MPs met the Prime Minister last night.

Despite the party's catastrophic European election results and yet another ministerial resignation, only a handful of critics broke ranks to call for Mr Brown to stand down.

The Prime Minister attempted to defuse the febrile mood among his MPs by admitting to "weaknesses", and promising a new approach and new policies.

He also pledged to act in a "more collective way", and signalled policy shifts were on the way.

There had been talk of a backbench campaign to force Mr Brown to resign, but the momentum was lost when ministers failed to follow the lead of former Work and Pensions minister James Purnell when he quit demanding a change of leadership.

Today's Cabinet meeting - the first since Friday's reshuffle - was expected to discuss concessions on part-privatisation of Royal Mail.

An inquiry into the Iraq war is also set to be announced soon, but the sniping at Mr Brown from dissident Labour MPs continued even after last night's meeting of the parliamentary party.

Former transport minister Tom Harris said said he did not believe Mr Brown would lead the party into the next general election.

"There are many people in the Labour Party, in the Government, in the PLP, who feel as I do about Gordon, who feel that his continued leadership will result in a Conservative government and if you genuinely believe that then you should say so.

Asked if the divisions would continue in the party, he said: "I can see no way we can draw a line under it."

Former Trade Secretary Stephen Byers used a rally staged by the Blairite think-tank Progress to add his voice to the criticism.

He 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."

&#149 An opinion poll today claimed Labour could deny the Tories an overall majority at the general election if Alan Johnson replaced Mr Brown as leader.

The ComRes survey for the Independent found the Conservatives have an advantage of 38 per cent to 22 per cent while Mr Brown is leader.

If Home Secretary Mr Johnson took over, it suggested the party's support would rise to 26 per cent and backing for the Tories drop to 36 per cent, which would leave the Tories six short of an overall majority.