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Brown tries to save government with reshuffle

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-05 17:20

LONDON  – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was reshuffling his government Friday to try to pull it out of a crisis after a third senior minister quit and urged Brown to step aside.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, seen here in May 2009, faced a battle to salvage his authority after a minister insisted his continued leadership would spell disaster for the country as he quit the government. [Agencies]

Related readings:  Another minister quits UK govt, tells Brown to go  UK interior minister seen quitting government

The resignation of Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell increases the chances that Brown, not long ago lauded for his efforts to stabilize the global financial system, will be forced out of office after only two years.

The reshuffle is seen as a last chance for Brown, dogged by poor poll ratings and gossip about a political coup since he took over from Tony Blair in mid-2007, to try to win back authority over an increasingly rebellious party.

Media reports said Friday Brown had given up on a plan to replace finance minister Alistair Darling with his close ally Ed Balls after Darling refused to move. Darling has won praise for his efforts to pull Britain out of its deepest recession since World War Two.

Brown's room for maneuver has been limited by the resignations this week of Purnell, interior minister Jacqui Smith and communities minister Hazel Blears. At the same time, close allies moved quickly to rally around him Friday.

Brown's departure would add to pressure on Labor to bring forward a general election it must hold within a year. The opposition center-right Conservatives are well ahead in the polls and would be the clear favorites to return to power for the first time since 1997.

The political turmoil pushed the pound about one percent lower against the euro and the dollar in early Friday trade.

"I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely," Purnell said in a letter to Brown. "I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning."

POLLS BLOW

The shock move by Purnell, seen by some as a potential future leader of the party, follows the departures of Blears and Smith, who both quit without openly attacking Brown.

Unlike Purnell, Blears and Smith had been tipped for the axe in any reshuffle following disclosures about their expenses claims -- just two cases in an allowances scandal that has wounded the integrity of all parties in parliament.

Brown's woes did not stop there. Early results pointed to widely expected heavy losses for his ruling Labor party in Thursday's local council elections.

"The government is collapsing in front of our eyes," Conservative leader David Cameron said on his website.

A weak showing for Labor in Thursday's European elections when results are released Sunday could be the final blow for Brown, Simon Lee, a politics expert at Hull University, said.

"Even if between now and Sunday, no other cabinet minister follows Purnell's example, if results are as bad as seems likely it will be very hard for Gordon Brown to survive," he said.

News reports said up to 75 Labor members of parliament -- around a fifth of the total -- were ready to sign a letter calling on Brown to go, even before Purnell's announcement.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson is seen as the front-runner to replace Brown. The BBC reported that he had a "structure in place" for a leadership campaign.

Several ministers rallied to Brown's defense.

"He's the right person at a time when you've got a world recession for the first time since the Second World War," said Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper, a cabinet minister tipped for a promotion. "He's had plaudits from President Obama, the French president and the Australian prime minister saying how important Gordon Brown's work is on the international stage."