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Britain PM faces showdown with rebels

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-08 22:47

LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced the prospect Monday of renewed challenges to his grip on power after his Labour Party suffered its worst electoral results in a century.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown attends a meeting in Stratford, east London where he spoke with local Labour Party activists Sunday June 7, 2009. [Agencies]

Rebel Labour lawmakers are expected to decide whether to mount an attempt to depose Brown, who will meet Monday with many of the party's members of Parliament - those supporting him, those opposed and those still undecided.

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The party finished third in Britain in voting for representatives to the European Parliament, behind the Conservatives, the country's main opposition party, and the Euroskeptic UK Independence Party. The results were Labour's worst in a nationwide vote since 1910.

And the party's support in elections for district and city hall assemblies collapsed, too, increasing the pressure on Brown.

"The message is clear: we need a complete change of political direction," said Labour lawmaker John McDonnell. Rebels need the backing of 71 of Labour's 350 lawmakers to trigger a leadership contest, which would likely take about three weeks.

The poor showing at the polls left Labour, in power since 1997, looking inward, debating furiously whether its best chance of survival lay in sticking with Brown or kicking him out.

Brown has also borne the brunt of criticism over lawmakers' excessive expense claims, which have ignited public anger. Ten ministers quit his government last week.

He must call a national election by June, 2010, and Labour's drubbing at the polls is the latest sign that the Conservatives are likely to regain power, with Labour swept into the political wilderness.

"I think we are moving moderately quickly toward the need for a change and that change may be a change in leadership," Charles Falconer, a Labour member of the House of Lords and a Cabinet minister under Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, told the BBC.

Yet some observers say the appalling result for Labour - the party won just 15 percent of the vote in the European parliamentary elections - make it more likely Brown will be able cling to his job.

Labour rebels may struggle to find a willing challenger to Brown if the party appears doomed to lose the next election.

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