No time has been wasted by the detractors of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown after the breadth taking spiral of incriminating episode of MP expenses scandal that three prominent members of his own Government have stuck the knife in. It has been an extraordinary few days as the public voted during the European Elections and some local and county level elections in the UK. The results of the former followed on Sunday after the polls had closed in the rest of the European Union and the results of the latter were all too obvious as Labour Party saw spectacular losses to the opposition parties with gains by smaller political parties including the far right. It seemed from the early exit polls that the far right was on the march in gaining valuable footholds across Europe with Turkey ‘bashing’ their mantra to keep Turkey ‘out of Europe’. History was made as the far right racist BNP (British National Party) won in the UK for the first time with two seats in EU Parliament. Nothing new there then apart from the fact how similar this all chimes with the mantra from Nicholas Sarkozy during his electioneering in France and those of Angela Merkel during her election in Germany.
What has been quite startling in the last few weeks is the drip feed of news that was designed to unsettle and unnerve the Labour Government and its leadership leading up to the local and European elections. First we witnessed the barring of some of the Labour MPs who were exposed as profiteering from the expenses affair by the Labour Party Head Office. One barred MP from standing in the next General Election namely Ian Gibson decided to challenge the whole thing by resigning his seat with immediate effect thereby causing a by-election headache for Prime Minister Brown.
Then there have been the steady stream of announcements first by the first ever woman Home Secretary Jacqui Smith wanting to spend more time with her family and pre-empting her being shuffled out of the Cabinet. Then followed the resignation of the outspoken pint sized Communities and Local Government Secretary of State Hazel Blears. Who cited her reason to step down for wanting to connect with the public? Then within hours a totally new resignation and full on attack on the Prime Minister by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell. He was one of the closest politicians to the current Foreign Secretary David Miliband. The latter choosing to stay ‘loyal’ to the Prime Minister as he is known for his ambitious plans for the main job. This all left very little room for Gordon Brown to add finishing touches to his well trailed cabinet reshuffle and this was brought forward in a hastily arranged press conference at Number 10 on Friday. Caroline Flint the Minister of Europe was so perturbed by the whole episode that from being a ‘loyal’ Minister the night before the media was on fully charged offensive in the morning accusing the Prime Minister of being ‘sexist’ and using women for his political ends. A charge that many have seen as baseless coming from a former ‘Blair babe’ and one that has used her position more to exploit her sexuality than articulate the European policy on behalf of UK plc. The chancellor who was a certain bet to lose his position in the reshuffle did not more by default than design. As the events dictated the survival of the Prime Minister meant that the Foreign Secretary and Chancellor stayed put in their positions thereby denying the likes of Ed Balls the position at number 11 Downing Street as Chancellor and Peter Mendalson the Foreign Secretary post. As a consolation Ed Balls wife Yvette Cooper was promoted to replace James Purnell at the Work and Pensions Department and Peter Mandelson given a new and bigger Department including being made a ‘first Minister’.
However, the stream of resignations and appearances on the media networks failed to deliver the fatal blow to the leadership of Gordon Brown as the head of the Labour Party and a Labour Government. What the coup lacked was a clear locus of an alternative to Brown. The Blairites were blunt in their execution of strategy to unseat Brown as they offered no alternative to Brown. His stop- gap successor as seen by many in the media, Alan Johnson was moved to fill the Home Secretary’s vacant position and he was not ruling out any future bid for the top job. The man most touted by Blair as his successor during his time was David Miliband. He so far has stayed ‘loyal’ to the leader in public and thereby the Blairites squandered what little capital they had to cash in their coup strategy. The other large camp in the Labour Party has clearly seen that its electoral chances are higher with Gordon Brown than without as any bounce of a new leader leading up the General Election by May 2010 will be short lived. It would play into the hands of the opposition Conservative Party, whose poll ratings look good for now and their prospect of forming the next Government with a majority of 32 seats is hardly earth shattering in the current turmoil. As the Tory front bench move their strategy from corridors of influence to corridors of power they seem to lack the substance of serious policy alternatives to Labour. Their default position is not to seek to get Brown to resign but to seek to get him to call a General Election. The Brown cry in response is to shriek of any attempt to seek an early election. His counter is to focus on turning around the failed economy ( we are reminded global in nature) along with the broken MP expenses system and the best hand to do this is the man that got us there – Gordon Brown.
If the opinion polls are to be believed then the trust of the public in politicians is at an all time low and restoring this trust in politicians and ultimately in democracy must by a key priority for all complexions of political parties.
Gordon Brown without a doubt is wounded by the recent events and the results of the European Elections have added to his political woes. Brown is vulnerable to the next plan from the Blairite clique in the Labour Government. So far Brown has played a good hand at keeping them in the broad tent of politics and moved quickly to insulate him and those close to him from any fall out. When you have a disgruntled right hand man like Ed Balls being denied the Chancellors role and his ambitions to lead the Party then there is more trouble to be expected. As they say a week is long time in politics and the following week will be a marvel. Who will ultimately wield the fatal blow to lead the headless Labour Party into the electoral and political abyss so reminiscent of the 1980’s?
Semra Eren-Nijhar 