WORLD> Europe
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WORLD> Europe
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Britain's Brown refuses to quit
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-06 11:31 LONDON -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown battled desperately Friday to keep his job, ignoring demands to quit amid a flurry of Cabinet resignations and a swelling rebellion in the ranks of his Labour Party. Brown, who waited impatiently for a decade to inherit his job from Tony Blair, promoted loyalists to Cabinet posts in a shake-up of his team aimed at restoring his credibility. It follows a scandal over lawmakers' expenses and catastrophic results in local elections.
Dissident legislators said a plot to oust Brown could gather pace when expected dismal results in the European Parliament elections are announced Sunday. "I will not waver. I will not walk away. I will get on with the job," Brown told reporters. He insisted he won't be forced from office and said he can defy all predictions by winning a national election that must be called by June 2010. Opponents say Brown is tainted by the economic crisis and the expenses scandal, has little authority over his ranks and is so unpopular that his governing Labour Party is doomed to defeat when voters next have a chance to choose a government.
"I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less, likely," Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell told Brown late Thursday in a letter, quitting his Cabinet post. Despite his insistence that he can revive Labour's fortunes, analysts said Brown's position as British leader is in serious peril. "I don't see what Brown can do. I think the damage has gone too deep now," said Pete Dorey, a political scientist at the University of Cardiff. |
