Haven’t we seen this story once too often?
Nothing’s happened after previous threats so why believe this?
Well here we are taking a first look at the Sunday papers after another election disaster for Labour and what do we see? Yes threats by Labour MPs to try to force Brown to quit.
The key part of the story is this: “The Mail on Sunday has been told that the ‘guerrilla MPs’ would start resigning at staged intervals throughout the summer and autumn, forcing a series of by-elections which Mr Brown would almost certainly lose.
The pressure on the Prime Minister to step down would then become irresistible…
Leading rebel Barry Sheerman told a private meeting of backbench MPs on Monday that the party could face mass resignations. He said: ‘If we are not careful, a number of MPs could leave their seats in the coming weeks and months and face by-elections because they are fed up with what is going on – and then we would be in real trouble.'”
The main new element is the notion of MPs giving up their seats to force by elections – something that could be very costly for the individuals concerned given the generous re-settlement and pension arrangements.
There might be other Ian Gibsons about but there can’t be many – and all Brown will do is ride out the storm and look forward to a big show of unity at September’s party conference.
I’m not convinced. The only way Brown is going to go is of his own accord and I don’t rule that out. But I can’t see him giving into threats of this nature.