This Is London : Gordon Brown scents victory as Blair suffers massive revolt

Gordon Brown scents victory as Blair suffers massive revolt

September 6, 2006

Gordon Brown left Downing Street tonight looking like the cat that got the cream.

After three hours of bad-tempered talks with Tony Blair, the Chancellor still wore a big smile.

Mr Brown had apparently won a promise that the Premier will finally come clean about his departure plans.

But sceptical allies of the Chancellor were still asking: Can we really believe Blair this time?

The Labour crisis came to a head after one of the most tumultuous days Westminster has ever seen.

Blairite MPs feared the Premier was being pushed to the brink of losing power as:

* Seven Ministerial Parliamentary aides quit in protest at his refusal to name the day;

* Junior defence minister Tom Watson resigned minutes before he was due to be sacked for signing a rebel ultimatum to the Premier;

* His move triggered an acrimonious exchange of letters, with Mr Blair branding him discourteous, disloyal and wrong'.

* Commons Leader Jack Straw and Education Secretary Alan Johnson met Mr Blair in Downing Street, fuelling the impression of a Premier in crisis.

* More than 100 MPs hardened their plan to send a delegation into Downing Street this weekend to tell Mr Blair the game is up' if he fails to budge.

* Tory leader David Cameron said the Government was falling apart and called for an end to uncertainty'.

The day of drama, unmatched since the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, left Mr Blair at bay and Labour's claim to be a disciplined political force in tatters.

At its end, MPs were told last night to expect a public statement from Mr Blair today, admitting for the first time that he has less than a year left in office.

He will confirm what his allies have spent days trying to say for him – that this month's Labour conference in Manchester will be his last as leader.

The announcement will be backed by a Downing Street spin operation offering a timetable that would see him leave office on June 15 next year.

A special Labour spring conference would be called in February, at which Mr Blair would confirm that he will stand down as party leader on May 4.

That will be just after his 10th anniversary as Premier – and following what are expected to be disastrous Scottish, Welsh and local elections.

There would then be a Labour leadership contest before Mr Blair resigns as Premier and hands over to his successor.

But tonight there were doubts about Mr Blair's ability to survive the worst crisis of his premiership.

There was even speculation that he could be gone before the Labour conference in less than three weeks.

Labour peer Lord – formerly Donald – Anderson, said yesterday: 'I think there are good arguments in terms of the elections we have in Wales and Scotland to have the new leader in place… say by February or March next year.'

What amount to a humiliating climbdown by the Premier was forced on him by 24 hours of open rebellion in Labour ranks, dominated by the sensational resignation of eight members of the Government.

Mr Watson and the seven departing Parliamentary Private Secretaries were all among the MPs from the 2001 intake who wrote to Mr Blair on Monday saying it was time for him to set a timetable.

Hartlepool MP Mr Wright said in his letter to the PM that his resignation was a matter of 'utmost regret', that he had always been a 'loyal member' of the Labour Party, but he 'no longer believed that the party and the Government can renew itself in office without urgently renewing the leadership'.

Sources said Mr Blair was reduced to 'ranting' at staff after learning that Mr Watson had jumped before he could be pushed.

Mr Blair and Mr Brown met as the bitter struggle for power that has poisoned the New Labour project for more than a decade appeared to be entering its final act.

Angry exchanges

Despite Mr Blair's apparent promise to go, the meeting still ended in angry exchanges as the two deadly rivals accused each other's loyalists of plunging the party into crisis.

Mr Brown's supporters were reluctant to declare victory, warning that Mr Blair's record on his future was 'unreliable at best'.

They said the precise date of his departure was less important than an unequivocal pledge to end the attacks by his allies on the Chancellor and his record.

Downing Street was reduced to accusing Mr Brown of orchestrating a palace coup, as a succession of his allies emerged to call for Mr Blair quit.

Tonight a defiant Prime Minister challenged the Chancellor to make a public pledge of loyalty and 'call off his dogs' in exchange for speeding up his own departure from Downing Street.

But there was further evidence that the Labour tide was moving inexorably away from Mr Blair last night as rising star David Miliband issued an unequivocal endorsement of Mr Brown.

The Environment Secretary, Mr Blair's former policy chief, said the party wanted an 'energising, refreshing transition' to the Chancellor, prompting claims from Brown supporters that he could now be a contender for the deputy leadership.

The Premier's aides admitted that Mr Blair's hopes of staying in office until next July had been dashed. The leak of plans for a May 31 resignation to the Labour-supporting Sun newspaper had spectacularly backfired.

As MPs stepped up their calls for Mr Blair to go before crucial mid-term elections in May in Scotland, Wales and English councils, the Prime Minister was said to be reconciled to leaving Downing Street early next spring.

But Labour chief whip Jacqui Smith warned MPs against making more trouble, declaring: 'Expecting the Prime Minister to be bundled out of the back door in the next few days isn't stable and it isn't orderly. I don't think it is what the vast majority of my colleagues or the party in the country want.'

The two meetings between Mr Blair and Mr Brown followed several days of talks by telephone and took place in Mr Blair's Downing Street 'den', which has become infamous as his preferred location for talks away from civil servants.

There was confusion tonight about exactly what was discussed.

Mr Blair was said to have agreed that his decision last week to rule out offering the party a timetable for his departure had triggered the crisis, and was unsustainable. He was also said to have accepted the need for an urgent public statement about his intentions.

But it was also reported that he told Mr Brown to distance himself from 'plotters' who dominated the airwaves today with calls for Mr Blair to go.

Mr Brown countered by demanding that Mr Blair silence the 'ultras', led by Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers, running a campaign to discredit him.

The Prime Minister is expected to confirm that the Manchester conference will be his last, in what Mr Brown hopes will be the first in a series of announcements about a timetable.

There was another echo of Lady Thatcher's downfall as Mr Blair prepared to fly to the Middle East. He will be away from Westminster on Sunday, when Mr Brown is expected to make his first statement about the crisis.