UK’s Brown in crisis as another minister quits

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown attempted yesterday to survive the most serious challenge to his leadership since he took office, as Cabinet ministers deserted his government and a scandal over lawmakers' expenses threatened to force him out of Downing Street.

Four ministers have quit their jobs in two days, pre-empting Brown's planned shake-up of his ministerial team and creating the image of a government in chaos. Amid talk that the wave of resignations may be the beginning of the end of his premiership, Brown faced a rowdy Prime Minister's Questions session at which Conservative leader David Cameron urged a snap general election.

"The government is collapsing before our eyes," said Cameron, tipped by opinion polls to oust Brown as premier within a year. "Why doesn't he take the one act of authority left to him: get down to the palace, ask for a dissolution (of parliament), call that election?" Nick Clegg, leader of the second opposition centrist Liberal Democrats, said Brown's Labour Party was "in total meltdown," according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

The angry exchanges came barely an hour after Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, who has faced criticism over her allowances claims, said publicly she was quitting. "I want to help the Labour Party to reconnect with the British people, to remind them that our values are their values, that their hopes and dreams are ours too," Blears said. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, embarrassed in the expenses row after it emerged she claimed for two adult films watched by her husband, has confirmed she will quit at the next cabinet reshuffle, expected as early as Friday. Children's minister Beverley Hughes also said she was going and will be joined by Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson, a close Brown ally. The futures of Treasury chief Alistair Darling, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon and Europe Minister Caroline Flint are also in doubt.

Key elections

Resignations just before British voters go to the polls in European and local elections today are seen by many as an attempt to force the prime minister from office. Many legislators believe the governing Labour Party can only revive its fortunes under a new leader.

Voters are expected to use the elections to rebuke Britain's three major political parties - but Brown's Labour in particular - by backing minority parties as a protest against legislators' excessive expenses claims.

Anger has been fueled by revelations that lawmakers expensed items ranging from cookies and cushions to horse manure, swimming pool repairs and bogus home loan payments. About 15 lawmakers, including members of Brown's Labour Party and the Conservatives, have said they won't run for re-election. Analysts say hundreds of lawmakers - perhaps half of those in the House of Commons - could be ousted in the next national election, which Brown must call by June 2010. None of the parties has been immune from the scandal.

"Rats Desert Sinking Ship" and "Meltbrown" were among headlines Wednesday while The Guardian newspaper, traditionally sympathetic to Brown and Labour, symbolically withdrew its support from the premier. British daily reported that a group of rank and file Labour lawmakers were preparing to gather signatures from their ranks calling on Brown to step down.

"It is time to cut him loose," it said in an extended editorial. Labour "faces its worst defeat in its history tomorrow but the prime minister does not recognize his direct responsibility for the mayhem," the daily said. "The truth is that there is no vision from him, no plan, no argument for the future and no support." Some reports suggest Brown could face a leadership challenge before the next general election, possibly from charismatic Health Secretary Alan Johnson. Others say there is little interest from anyone in taking over the helm of a party which looks likely to be forced out of office by the Conservatives within months.