Leave Brown to the voters

One must almost admire the optimism of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt. Their call to arms — asking Labour members to rise up and topple their leader — is entirely logical. Gordon Brown is easily the Tories’ biggest asset: without saying ‘no more Brown’, their message on the doorsteps would lose much of its impact. A party determined to preserve itself would, indeed, find someone — anyone — else.

But if Mr Hoon and Ms Hewitt are so concerned about their party, why did they not speak out last June? Why did they not back Mr Purnell, who sacrificed his political future? The answer is that they were both hoping Mr Brown would send them to Brussels to be EU High Representative: a job which eventually went to the hapless Baroness Ashton. And other Labour MPs? Most do not expect to return to parliament after the election, either due to defeat or because they plan to resign.

Mr Brown is a dreadful Prime Minister but a very successful bully and schemer. One by one, he has picked off the people who presented threats to him. Now he isolates those who might dethrone him. He put Charlie Whelan at the helm of Unite to make sure the unions do not rock the boat (as Iain Martin says on page 16). He still believes he has all bases covered: that the likes of Ms Hewitt will fail.

This magazine sincerely hopes that Mr Brown has calculated correctly. Removing him from No. 10 should be a pleasure that belongs to the voters alone.