So Jane Kennedy has quit her position as a junior environment minister, and Paul Waugh tells us that there’ll be more resignations ahead of Brown’s meeting with the PLP tonight. In the meantime, Baroness Blackstone seems to implicitly call for Brown to go, via an article in the Standard arguing against one of the main reasons put forward by Brown’s supporters for keeping him. Here’s how it kicks off:
“Most political commentators assume that if there is a new leader of the Labour Party there would have to be an immediate general election. They are wrong. There is nothing in the British Constitution that requires one, nor is there any recent precedent, irrespective of party.
When Alec Douglas-Home replaced Harold Macmillan, when Jim Callaghan took over from Harold Wilson, when John Major succeeded Margaret Thatcher, and when Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair, a general election was not triggered.
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