Gordon Brown appeared to have faced down any immediate threat to his premiership from a backbench rebellion tonight coming through a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party having seen off his critics and former ministers who called on him to stand down.
In front of one of the most packed meetings of the parliamentary Labour party in its history, Brown defended himself, telling the meeting: “I have my strengths and I have my weaknesses. I know there are some things I do well, some things not so well. I’ve learned that you need to keep learning all the time.”
Inside, a line up of Labour heavyweights from the party’s recent history were on hand to hear the prime minister. Lord Mandelson, Ed Balls, Harriet Harman and Alan Johnson headed the list of senior cabinet ministers who were joined by Lords Kinnock and Hattersley, the former leader and deputy leader of the party.
It took a figure, who first made his name in the Kinnock era, to say what was on the minds of many MPs. Charles Clarke, chief of staff to the former Labour leader who went on to become home secretary under Blair, was heard in stony silence as he stood up to tell Brown that he should go. Clarke was supported by Tom Harris, the former Blairite transport minister, who was sacked by Brown last year.
Of the 21 members of the PLP who spoke out, five were against Brown. Frank Dobson, the former health secretary who spoke up in favour of Brown quoted the Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman who wrote last year that Brown had led the way in saving the world with his bank rescue.
The prime minister told his MPs he wanted to use all the “talents” in the party and act in a “more collective way” and urged the party to learn the lessons from the past.
He insisted: “You solve the problem not by walking away but by facing it and doing something about it.”
“I’m not making a plea for unity. I am making an argument for unity.”
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