Gordon Brown has dramatically changed the succession battle by laying down his own job in what is a final, desperate move to prevent a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.
The chances of the Brown manoeuvre succeeding are still long. He did not consult Cabinet ministers before making his announcement and some believe his suggested progressive, or rainbow, coalition does not form the basis for a sustainable, stable administration.
In the short-term, however, Mr Brown’s announcement that he intends to stand down as Labour leader is intended to remove an obstacle to the negotiations with the the Lib Dems which will now start formally after informal contacts since last Friday.
The uncertainty is because Labour and the Lib Dems combined still do not have enough MPs for an overall majority and would require the support of some nationalist and independent MPs to survive. Some ministers believe that this combination would not be political credible since the Tories won the most votes and MPs at the general election.
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Updates:
Gordon, don’t go away mad, just go away.
mid island mike
Don’t let the door hit yer butt on the way out. I’m sure Britain has had worse PMs before but I’d be hard pressed to name one.