Could there be a secret MPs ballot on Brown’s future?
Would such a plot make this market more attractive?
With Ladbrokes re-opening their “Who’ll be PM at the end of the year” betting there’s news this morning of plan to give Labour MPs a secret vote when they could express their views on whether or not Gordon should lead Labour into the general election.
According to Tim Shipman in the Mail “a senior backbencher is being lined up to call for Mr Brown’s head and give MPs the chance to voice their dismay at his performance – without the need for a full-blown leadership election.”
The scheme is being designed to get round problem the rebels have had in the past of the need to go public and the fears over what this could do to their careers.
The idea, he reports, is“..to put up a candidate for the Parliamentary Committee, a panel of senior backbenchers which meets once a week with the Prime Minister, when MPs return to Westminster next month. The ‘coup candidate’ will run on a single platform – a call for Mr Brown to stand aside and let someone else lead Labour into the General Election.”
The plotters are said to believe that if their candidate got 100 votes, half the back-benchers, then Brown’s position would be untenable. Will it happen? Will it work? Who knows?
There seems to be a lot going on at the moment – the question for punters is whether it’s worth a gamble?