UK NEWS

PRESSURE MOUNTS ON BROWN

Gordon Brown's Labour Party has seen massive losses in the local elections

Saturday May 3,2008

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown is under pressure from all sides of his party to restore his credibility after delivering Labour's worst election results in at least 40 years.

In his first electoral test as PM, Mr Brown lost nine councils and 333 seats and saw Labour's Ken Livingstone edged out of power in the capital after eight years.

The Prime Minister is expected to take to the airwaves over the next few days to accept blame for Labour's poor showing and assure voters that he is ready to make good on his promise to "listen and lead".

While a swift Cabinet reshuffle is thought unlikely, Labour MPs left no doubt they believed Mr Brown must move quickly to show he had got a grip on the crisis.

He has less than three weeks to start turning the position around before the May 22 by-election for Gwyneth Dunwoody's old seat of Crewe and Nantwich, which would be vulnerable to the sort of swings seen over the past 24 hours.

Senior Labour figures acknowledged that the party needed to change to pick itself up off the floor after its drubbing, which Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly described as "a terrible result for Labour - worse than anyone in government expected".

Minister for London Tessa Jowell, who ran the Livingstone campaign, said Labour had to "get out of the Westminster village" and re-engage with ordinary people's worries about the impact of economic downturn on their families.

And health minister Ivan Lewis warned: "The danger is after a long period in government, you look like a new elite - you don't look like the voice of the people in Westminster, you look like the voice of Westminster to the people.

"We have got to be the party that speaks to the concerns of hard-working families and relates to their everyday pressures... The message is, not just to Gordon Brown but all of us at Westminster, that we have to shape up."

Labour's 24% projected share of the national vote would cost up to 200 seats if repeated in the general election expected in 2010, and unhappy MPs made clear that the pressure was now on Mr Brown to restore the party's fortunes.

LUCA,LUCA,LUCA

04.05.08, 1:32pm

I think I love you,you have said it all,just as I would have written nuff sed hey.

• Posted by: thewarlord • Report Comment

LABOUR SHAMBLES

04.05.08, 8:21am

IT is so typical of Labour that in another article, Frank Field, blamed the scrapping of the 10p tax rate on their slaughter at the council elections.
Do they really believe that is the reason why people are sick to death of their incompetence?
There are many reasons, we could have picked:
Immigration policy.
Olympic stadium mismanagement when we are fighting wars on 2 fronts.
NHS crisis & people dying through MRSA.
Immigration policy.
Sleaze.
Human rights rubbish.
Care of the elderly.
We pay more for everything than anybody else.
Immigration policy.
Labour voted for an open door policy on European migration.
Lack of equipment for our troops.
Treatment of British wounded.
Treatment of Gurkhas.
Global warming tax con on everything.
Prisons crisis.
Teachers striking.
Police threatning to.
Soft sentencing.
And the list could go on and on.

• Posted by: Lucabrasi • Report Comment

LISTENING !!!

03.05.08, 5:33pm

Brown must be related to a goldfish because if he says he is listening to what the electorate want ,he forgets within 3minutes.

• Posted by: owldshep • Report Comment

TELL THE TRUTH? DICTATOR PRUDENCE BROWN DOES NOT HOW TO SPELL THE WORD "TRUTH"

03.05.08, 2:24pm

Restore his credibility?

What bloody credibility?

Get the foreigner out of Downing Street before this country hits the roof.

• Posted by: ReubenMohawali • Report Comment

PRESSURE MOUNTS ON BROWN

03.05.08, 2:11pm

Brown has it wrong in saying that it is the economy that vis costing votes, he is now proving he still does not listen, we whant a vote on thec EU, get tougth with crime, stop immigration, scrap the human rights law, cut taxes, give us value for money on our council taxes, tell the truth.

• Posted by: mike1951 • Report Comment