LONDON — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown battled Friday to keep his job, ignoring demands to quit amid a flurry of Cabinet resignations and a swelling rebellion in the ranks of his Labor Party.
Brown, who waited for a decade to inherit his job from Tony Blair, promoted loyalists to Cabinet posts in a shake-up of his team aimed at restoring his credibility. It follows a scandal over lawmakers’ expenses and catastrophic results in local elections.
His actions failed to quell a mood of dissent among rank-and-file legislators or stem a procession of walkouts by once-loyal colleagues. Caroline Flint quit her post as Europe minister — one of 10 ministers to resign out of 23 — and accused Brown of keeping her as “female window dressing” in a male-dominated Cabinet.
Dissident legislators said a plot to oust Brown could gather pace when expected dismal results in the European Parliament elections are announced Sunday.
“I will not waver. I will not walk away. I will get on with the job,” Brown told reporters.
He insisted he won’t be forced from office and said he can defy all predictions by winning a national election that must be called by June 2010.
Opponents say Brown is tainted by the economic crisis and the expenses scandal, has little authority over his ranks and is so unpopular that his governing Labor Party is doomed to defeat when voters next have a chance to choose a government. Britain’s main opposition Conservative Party routed Brown’s party in local elections Thursday, winning council seats in former Labor strongholds in northern and central England.
“I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less, likely,” Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell told Brown late Thursday in a letter, quitting his Cabinet post.
Despite his insistence that he can revive Labor’s fortunes, analysts said Brown’s position as British leader is in serious peril.
“I don’t see what Brown can do. I think the damage has gone too deep now,” said Pete Dorey, a political scientist at the University of Cardiff.
Brown spent much of Friday huddled in a basement office in his official Downing Street residence, shuffling sticky notes bearing the names of lawmakers as he finalized his Cabinet shake-up.
Outside, results of British local elections Friday showed a collapse in support for his party, which has held power in Britain since 1997.
Brown’s Labor looked likely to be pushed into third place behind the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, according to initial results.
Brown’s government has suffered the most in a scandal over lawmakers’ expense claims, blamed for failing to reform a system that allowed legislators from all parties to charge for items such as horse manure, porn movies and repairs to the moat of a country mansion.
