The former Labour cabinet ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt today called for a secret ballot to settle the question of Gordon Brown's leadership "once and for all".
In a devastating blow to the prime minister, Hoon, who was Brown's first chief whip after he took over at No 10, and Hewitt, the former health secretary, issued an email to Labour MPs to coincide with Brown's first question time of general election year. Some MPs accused the pair of "treachery".
Hoon told the Guardian that he felt he needed to act after a number of MPs approached him to air their concerns about Brown's leadership. He insisted that he had had no prior discussion with members of the cabinet and talked to Hewitt because she had independently expressed similar views.
"Matters came to a head over the vacation with colleagues calling me complaining. There had already been a fairly steady drift of opinion
people have continued to express their concerns. As I made clear in the letter, they feel our efforts to get the message across is getting hampered by the continued debate about the leadership."
The email sent from Hoon's account today on behalf of both himself and Hewitt, said:
Dear colleague,
As we move towards a general election it remains the case that the parliamentary Labour party is deeply divided over the question of the leadership. Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way in which this question is affecting our political performance. We have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to resolve this issue would be to allow every member to express their view in a secret ballot.
This could be done quickly and with minimum disruption to the work of MPs and the government. Whatever the outcome the whole of the party could then go forward, knowing that this matter had been sorted out once and for all.
Strong supporters of the prime minister should have no difficulty in backing this approach. There is a risk otherwise that the persistent background briefing and grumbling could continue up to and possibly through the election campaign, affecting our ability to concentrate all of our energies on getting our real message across.
Equally, those who want change, should they lose such a vote, would be expected by the majority of the PLP to devote all of their efforts to winning the election. The implications of such a vote would be clear – everyone would be bound to support the result.
This is a clear opportunity to finally lay this matter to rest. The continued speculation and uncertainty is allowing our opponents to portray us as dispirited and disunited. It is damaging our ability to set out our strong case to the electorate. It is giving our political opponents an easy target.
In what will inevitably be a difficult and demanding election campaign, we must have a determined and united parliamentary party. It is our job to lead the fight against our political opponents. We can only do that if we resolve these distractions. We hope that you will support this proposal.
Speculation increased that this letter could force the prime minister into calling a general election earlier than the expected date of 6 May.
Frank Field, the former welfare minister, said he welcomed the Hoon-Hewitt move. But on Sky News Labour backbencher Geraldine Smith, the MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, condemned "a small bunch of malcontents" and said she was "absolutely disgusted" by the move. "Do they have another candidate in mind?" she asked.
Eric Pickles, the Tory chairman, said: "We have a situation now where every day a Labour MP is turning on the prime minister. It's irresponsible to have such a dysfunctional, faction-ridden Labour party running the country.
"Ministers are more concerned about saving their own political skin than actually getting Britain out of the monumental mess we are in. We cannot go on like this. The only responsible thing the government can do is call a general election."
One loyal MP on the centre of the Labour party said: "There is no obligation on the part of the parliamentary committee to consider the application for a secret ballot. And it seems to me there is no point having a secret ballot with only one candidate – that was the problem before and it's pretty pointless.
"The party is pretty united in frustration about Gordon's leadership but the question is what do we do about it unless we have another candidate. Without another candidate this is just a non-starter. But, until that point, the parliamentary committee are not duty bound to consider this."
In a heated Commons exchange at prime minister's questions, David Cameron taunted Brown with claims that he was "eking" out his time as an unelected leader.
The Tory leader made the broadside across the dispatch box as he challenged Brown on his "deeply divided" government and over the best way to reduce the budget deficit.
Hoon's missive comes despite efforts by Downing Street insiders earlier today to dismiss as nonsense rumours that backbench critics of the PM were trying to persuade sympathetic cabinet ministers to resign in a bid to force him out.
The expected salvo from Hewitt, a Blairite who is due to stand down as an MP at the next election, follows her recent criticism of the prime minister over changes to the child tax credit unveiled in the pre-budget report.
Rumours over a last-ditch attempt to remove Brown as leader have gained such a head of steam in the tea rooms of Westminster and in the blogosphere that the Blairite Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, was last night forced to put out a statement denying she was planning to quit.
Hoon and Hewitt have been on the outskirts of the core 20 rebels agitating for Brown to go for some months. Hoon had prepared a resignation letter in which he called for Brown to go at the time of leaving government in June 2009 but declined to publish it, hopeful that he might have gone on to be appointed to the role of EU commissioner.
However, since his time outside government he has spent much time with the rebels who had expected for six weeks or more that Hoon would make the kind of intervention he has today. Hewitt has been unhappy with Brown's leadership for a long time but has declined to put her name to any move until now, despite being associating with the rebels.
Those rebels whose names have long been associated with the plot against Brown have written publicly in the last few days but in other respects have been notable for their silence on tactics and strategy.
Some commentators had suggested that Jowell could be the subject of rumours of an impending resignation, because of her recent attack on the "hideous" class war strategy of highlighting Cameron's Eton background.
But Jowell said: "This story is complete and utter rubbish and I have no intention of resigning."
A string of calls were made from anti-Brownite backbenchers Charles Clarke, Barry Sheerman and Greg Pope for Brown to be removed as PM early in the new year.
Brown's Labour critics feel that an alternative leader would have to take over within weeks to have any chance of making a dent in the Tories' double-digit opinion poll lead by the final possible election date of 3 June.
But repeated polls suggest that there is no clear candidate among Labour's senior figures who could be guaranteed to turn the party's position around if he or she took over as prime minister.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/06/hoon-and-hewitt-statement-brown
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