'We need a new leader, someone has got to speak out' – Scottish MP's message to Brown

Published on Monday 28 July 2008 22:13

A SENIOR MP yesterday called for Gordon Brown to stand down as Prime Minister in the interests of the Labour Party.

Gordon Prentice, the Edinburgh-born MP for Pendle in Lancashire, said Mr Brown was a liability to the party and Labour needed a new leader.

His calls will bolster the suggestion by some MPs that Mr Brown should face a leadership contest this autumn.

Mr Prentice's criticism was the strongest on-the-record remark from an MP and paves the way for a summer of discontent on the Labour benches following the devastating loss of the Glasgow East seat.

The back-bencher, who is seen as straight-talking, but not a gratuitous troublemaker, had told his local party officials that he had lost confidence in the Prime Minister.

"I just think we need a new leader. Someone has got to speak out," he said.

"I hope Gordon reflects on things during August and accepts that it is in the party's best interests, and perhaps his own, for him to stand down," he said, adding that Mr Brown had "gone a bit rusty".

"A Prime Minister must be able to communicate, persuade and enthuse. If not, the message is lost. I want to see an open leadership election where the bar in terms of nominations is not set so high so as to exclude credible candidates."

Being Prime Minister required different skills to being Chancellor, he said.

Senior parliamentarians, including George Howarth, a former Home Office and Northern Ireland minister, have also appeared to suggest the party needed to look at the "question of the leadership of the party".

Graham Stringer, a former minister turned rebel, has also been openly critical of the Prime Minister, saying he wanted change.

But Tony Lloyd, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, said Mr Prentice did not reflect the views of most Labour MPs.

Mr Lloyd said the "widespread view" among Labour MPs was not that Mr Brown should go, but that there was a need for a "sharper focus" and for Mr Brown "to get across what he's all about".

Senior ministers also came to Mr Brown's defence yesterday in public.

Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, admitted that Britain had "not seen the best" of Mr Brown since he arrived at Number 10 more than a year ago, and she said he was the "solution, not the problem".

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, also gave a coded warning to her colleagues, saying the Prime Minister deserved the support of "all of us" in getting on with the job and she demanded that Labour MPs stop "talking among themselves".

But a former Number 10 spin doctor yesterday said he envisaged Labour would be out of power for up to 15 years.

Lance Price, who worked in No 10 from 1998 to 2001, said Labour was already set for "catastrophic defeat" at the next general election, which could leave the party out of power for over a decade.

&#149 Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, yesterday insisted she was "minding the shop" while Gordon Brown was on holiday. Her claims are in contrast to Downing Street's assertion that the Prime Minister remained "fully in charge" while on holiday in Southwold, Suffolk.