UK NEWS

‘HE IS A PITIFUL, INEPT AND BULLYING PRIME MINISTER

ATTACK: Frank Field hit out at the PM

Tuesday June 9,2009

By Macer Hall

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(12)

GORDON Brown was yesterday dismissed as “pitiful” and “inept” in a blistering attack from one of his own MPs.

The excoriating character assessment by Frank Field came after the Prime Minister was left reeling by another ministerial resignation – the eighth since his leadership was first engulfed by crisis last week.

This time it was the turn of Environment Minister Jane Kennedy to accuse the PM of “ruling by smear” and claim that she was forced out after refusing to declare her loyalty.

She likened Mr Brown’s Downing Street to the hard-left bullying of Labour’s Trotskyist Militant Tendency of the 1980s.

But it was the brutally honest analysis by Mr Field that scored the most direct hit as he reminded Labour backbenchers of their leader’s deep personality defects.

Former welfare minister Mr Field described Labour’s collapse to just 15.7 per cent in the Euro poll as “pitiful”.

He said: “Labour cannot win with the present Prime Minister.

“I was one of the seven who would not support his coronation after Tony Blair was shoehorned out of Number 10. But even I didn’t think a Brown administration would be as inept as this one.

“Labour supporters claiming that the European results were not a catastrophe for the party can do so only by inventing a new meaning for the word catastrophe. Whether one looks at them on a national, regional or local level, the picture is pitiful.”

He said Labour MPs would “deserve our fate” if they failed to take action to remove Mr Brown.

Mr Field, who chairs the parliamentary all-party group on balanced migration, said the failure of mainstream parties to deal with the issues of immigration and Europe was “poisoning our political system” to the benefit of the BNP.

Mr Field was just one of a string of MPs lining up to attack Mr Brown yesterday. Some of the most damning criticism came from Ms Kennedy.

She revealed that the Prime Minister had telephoned her to urge her to pledge her loyalty after rumours that she was about to quit.

“I wasn’t able to give that assurance and so I have not been reappointed. That’s the fact of what happened,” she said.

Ms Kennedy feared Mr Brown was on course to destroy the Labour Party.

She said: “He himself has said in press conferences on Friday that he wants to fight on. My fear is that it will be to the bitter end of the Labour Party.”

Ms Kennedy’s broadside about his style of leadership – following the departures of Caroline Flint, Hazel Blears, Jacqui Smith and Margaret Beckett – was another shattering blow to beleaguered Mr Brown last night. Ms Kennedy, MP for Wavertree, Liverpool, said: “I’ve been unhappy about briefings against individuals, leaks, smears against colleagues.

“It’s a style of politics I have fought against all my working life since battling against the Militant Tendency here in Liverpool.”

She refused to distinguish between Mr Brown’s behaviour and that of the allegedly bullying aides and allies around him.

“I can’t distinguish between the two and in my view it’s how politics is driven forward by Gordon and the people around him.

“I fought against the Militant Tendency in Liverpool in the 1980s and helped the Labour party drive them out. One of the reasons I did that was because I was appalled at their conduct of politics – the bullying, the threats and intimidation.

“I can’t stand by any longer and say that I am content when that is happening.”

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TRUE ALLEGIANCE

09.06.09, 4:49pm

why not cross the floor (again)

• Posted by: JackPershing
Frank Field never actuially crossed the floor of te House, unlike some current Labour ministers.
If the present Labour government were true to their initial political comvictions we would be ruled by a cabal of Leninists, Marxists and Trotskyites.
And there are some who would say that we are.

• Posted by: freddie • Report Comment

PITIFUL BROWN

09.06.09, 1:57pm

just herd the latest news Brown has taken Malick back into the fold so much for the start of his CLEAN UP

• Posted by: ravingdave • Report Comment

WE CAN EXPECT A LOT MORE..........

09.06.09, 1:02pm

...pitiful, inept and bullying government, as politicians continue to shoehorn their relatives &friends into government jobs, creating their own political dynasties and watering down our democracy.Government has become a family business. We are increasingly seeing husband and wife teams, and MPs trying to pass their seats to wives and children as political inheritances. We face a future being 'governed' by a nepotocracy who will in reality do nothing more than 'rubber stamp' EU decrees and sit back and wait for a golden retirement.

• Posted by: moonlighter • Report Comment

CRASH GORDON NEEDS A SKINHEAD BODYGUARD

09.06.09, 11:47am

If Brown stays another 12 months ALL the parties will be celebrating because we will be legally locked into the EU Constitution.
Cameron can win an election and piddle with his 'Euro Funded' break-away-group where they can talk the talk and have as much chance of changing anything as a bunch of Girl Guides.
As for Brown... he is so popular he now has to have a skinhead bodyguard to search everyone who passes by. What a reflection on our government when the PM is scared of his own people.
Welcome to DICTATOR Britain... it makes you proud, doesn't it?

• Posted by: razzysmum • Report Comment