Losing the plot

The cackhanded attempt by former Cabinet ministers Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon to force a ballot of Labour MPs on the party leadership (your report, 7 January) is breathtaking.

Leaving aside the wisdom of unseating a sitting prime minister so close to a general election, it shows utter contempt for the voters and Labour's own method of electing its leader. The question of who should be prime minister should not be determined by internecine warfare in a political party, and not by the so-called parliamentary elite, but by all of that party's members.

Serious questions can be asked about the quality of leadership shown by Ms Hewitt and Mr Hoon during their own time in office. As UK health secretary, Ms Hewitt equivocated about the extent of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places, backing the total ban only at the last minute. Mr Hoon will soon give evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, when many of his decisions will come under close scrutiny, but many people in the armed services must already wonder about his judgment.

Changing a prime minister twice in a parliament simply on grounds of political expediency would be a constitutional outrage. Even to attempt to do so in the manner of the Hewitt-Hoon coup would be political suicide.

BOB TAYLOR

Shiel Court

Glenrothes

It is difficult to take seriously the followers of arch-plotter and schemer Gordon Brown complaining about "disloyalty". For close on a decade no-one could have been more disloyal than certain followers of Mr Brown, with their continuing letters and plots to bring down a three-time election winner, Tony Blair.

ALEXANDER McKAY

New Cut Rigg

Edinburgh