'Almost any' leader better than Brown
Updated on 06 January 2010
A former government whip today called on Lord Mandelson to tell Gordon Brown it is time to step down as prime minister to save Labour's chances of winning this year's general election.
Blairite backbencher Greg Pope said Labour must change leader if it is to win the election, due to be held by 3 June, and said "almost any of the senior figures in our party" would do better than Mr Brown in cutting the current Conservative lead.
Mr Pope is the latest in a series of Labour figures to issue New Year calls for Mr Brown's removal as leader, following former Cabinet minister Charles Clarke and Commons Schools Committee chairman Barry Sheerman.
And his call comes amid speculation that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, viewed by many as deputy prime minister in all but name, may have become disenchanted with Mr Brown's apparent efforts to shore up Labour's core vote with "class war" rhetoric.
The Daily Telegraph today reported that Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman, rather than Lord Mandelson, will front the party's election campaign by hosting daily televised media conferences.
But Labour dismissed suggestions that the business secretary was being sidelined in the campaign as "rubbish". A source declined to discuss precisely how the general election roles would be shared out, but said: "Harriet, as party chair, is going to be heavily involved in the campaign, as is Peter Mandelson, who is going to be central to it, and Douglas Alexander, who in his role as general election coordinator will be absolutely pre-eminent in terms of the organisation.
"It has always been about those three, so any suggestion that anyone is being sidelined is rubbish." Hyndburn MP Mr Pope, who is standing down from parliament at the election, last month denounced Mr Brown's attempts to open up "dividing lines" with the Tories rather than seek the widest possible coalition of support as a losing strategy.
In a new entry on his internet blog, he insisted Conservative victory at the election was "not a foregone conclusion" but a change of leader was needed to prevent it.
The PM is "disastrously more unpopular" than his own party and a "sizeable section" of potential swing voters has already decided that they will not back the party if Mr Brown remains in the top job, he said. "I realise that this may be an uncomfortable truth but it is a truth nonetheless, and one which every Labour MP knows from talking to constituents," wrote Mr Pope.
"I hold no brief to support any alternative leader and, in truth, almost any of the senior figures in our party would seriously narrow the gap with the Tories if they took over in January.
"Gordon loves the Labour party but the best thing that he could do now to help it stay in office would be to leave its leadership.
If not, we look to the de facto deputy prime minister to tell him the harsh truths. Carpe diem (seize the day), Lord Mandelson."
Mr Pope, who served as a whip from 1997 to 2001, said Labour had been "appallingly ill served by a cabal surrounding Gordon Brown", who had destabilised his predecessor Tony Blair, then ensured Mr Brown was crowned leader without a contest and smeared potential rivals within the party.
"The people that I represent need a Labour government and I am desperate to see one returned in 2010," wrote Mr Pope. "I've written before that we need a change of strategy but more than that we need a change of leader."
