Clarke urges coup to oust PM Brown

Former minister Charles Clarke calls on Cabinet to stage a New Year coup to remove Gordon Brown as PM
12 April 2012

Former Cabinet minister Charles Clarke has called on the Cabinet to stage a New Year coup to remove Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.

Mr Clarke claimed that "most senior Labour leaders" have lost faith in Mr Brown and said it was now time for them to discover their "killer instinct" and tell the Prime Minister he must stand down so that a new leader can take over.

Unless Mr Brown is replaced, Labour faces a "smashing" defeat in the poll - which must be held by June 3 - and could be out of power for a decade or more, warned the former Home Secretary.

Writing in his blog, Mr Clarke said: "In Parliament and elsewhere an overwhelming majority of Labour opinion believes that... Labour's chances would be significantly improved if Gordon Brown were to stand down.

"Over Christmas there have been signs that this strength of opinion is understood in the Cabinet. The New Year will be the time to ensure that the overwhelming feeling which does exist is turned into the action which brings about the necessary change.

"The price of failure is just too high.

"Doing nothing now may seem the easiest option. But Labour should learn from the Tories, who have had many whole decades in power: political parties need the killer instinct to hold on to office. David Cameron's Conservatives are relying on Labour failing to learn that lesson.

"From the beginning of 2010 we need a renewed Labour Party which can offer the people of Britain a genuine and positive choice at the ballot box."

The prominent Blairite, who has been one of the PM's most persistent Labour critics since he took power in 2007, accused Cabinet ministers of a "conspiracy of silence and inaction" which has kept Mr Brown in 10 Downing Street despite the party's "disastrous" position in the polls.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in