Gordon Brown: I'll carry on regardless even if I don't win

Published on Monday 15 March 2010 22:10

GORDON Brown yesterday echoed the famous words of one of his predecessors when he suggested he plans to go on as party leader – whatever the election result.

• Gordon and Sarah Brown at Michael Foot's funeral in north London yesterday. Picture: PA

Just before Conservative MPs forced Margaret Thatcher to resign in 1990, she said she would "go on and on", despite failing to see off Michael Heseltine in a leadership contest. And yesterday in an interview, Mr Brown suggested something similar if his party failed to win the election outright in a few weeks.

But his optimism was dented by a new ICM poll last night that suggested the Conservatives are opening up a lead again. The poll put the Tories on 40 per cent, nine points ahead of Labour on 31, with the Lib Dems trailing on 20 per cent.

Until recently, it had been widely assumed at Westminster that Mr Brown would stand down if he failed to secure victory.

But asked directly whether he would resign if he did not get a majority in the election, he replied: "I'll keep going."

He added: "I'll keep going because I want a majority. I'll keep going."

The comments have sparked another round of attacks from opposition parties with the Conservatives suggesting that Mr Brown continuing would be a "nightmare scenario".

Many have interpreted the Prime Minister's remarks as meaning he would stay on if there was a hung parliament.

But there has been speculation that a condition of the Liberal Democrats sharing power with Labour in a hung parliament would be for him to step down as Labour leader, allowing someone else to be prime minister.

The SNP also hopes to hold the balance of power, with a target of 20 seats. SNP campaign co-ordinator Stewart Hosie said: "The confused and desperate protestations of Gordon Brown are hallmarks of a leader in crisis.

"An election is an opportunity for voters to endorse or reject the record of the government. To ignore their opinion expressed at the ballot box would be massively arrogant for the man who had led the UK government for almost three years."

Mr Brown's comments followed reports that an unnamed senior minister suggested he would hope to remain Labour leader in the event of defeat at the polls.

The minister was quoted as saying: "Don't underestimate Gordon. Unless the rejection at the polls is large and personal, there is no reason for him to go quickly."

Asked whether he would not owe it to Labour to stand down if he failed to secure a "decent majority", Mr Brown replied: "I owe it to people to continue and complete the work that we have started off, taking this country out of the most difficult financial recession.

"To be honest, going round the country, I feel there is more to do to improve the health service, more to do to give people better opportunities, more to do for women on maternity pay and equal pay, more to do on the discriminations that still exist."

Former Labour minister Geoffrey Robinson said there would be little choice but for Mr Brown to stay in charge if the Tories failed to secure an overall majority. And he said that would represent a "very remarkable achievement" for Mr Brown if the election resulted in a hung parliament, not an outright win for the Opposition.

"If we have a minority government it would, within year one I would have thought, literally have to go to the country for a majority, in which case, for the Labour Party to contemplate a leadership election, quite honestly, would be rather farcical.

"Whether he likes it or not, Gordon would be drafted pretty much to fight that election for us," he said. "When you have fought your way back, having been written off all those times, and so absolutely unilaterally written off, to fight back to a hung parliament is a very remarkable achievement.

He has got to go on and we will fight the second election for sure if we have one this year under Gordon Brown."