As you would expect, I’ve been out all day working on the election, firstly with a spot of telling at a polling station and then running a committee room.
I got home shortly after polls closed, only to hear on the radio in the car that James Purnell has resigned from the Cabinet. He waited until the polls closed so that his actions could not be blamed for Labour’s poll performance, but his resignation seems even more of a bombshell than those of Hazel Blears and Jacqui Smith because he has openly challenged Brown to stand down. He has stopped short of putting himself forward as a challenger to Brown for the Labour leadership, but surely it cannot be long before someone does.
It all seems to be falling apart at the seams…previously I thought that Gordon Brown would last until the end of the Parliament and that we were on track for an election next spring. Now, I really find it hard to believe that he can last the week, with 3 members of his cabinet resigning in the space of 2 days plus what are expected to be very poor results for Labour at the polls. And I’m now hearing rumours that David Miliband may resign tomorrow.
Update
The Spectator, which originally reported the Miliband rumours, is now saying he has come out against Purnell’s action, which suggests he is not intending to resign tomorrow, although anything might happen. Earlier this week it seemed like both the Chancellor and Foreign Secretary may be the victims of Gordon Brown’s planned reshuffle – will he have the courage to remove them both now, with the possibility that they might just up and follow Purnell and the others?
Filed under: National Politics
