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He should have kept his mouth shut and not played mind games with his own party and the nation at large.
Yes it's time to go, he's lost his way

This whole sorry business is ridiculous and embarrassing for all concerned, especially the post silly season journos who are desperate for a good early September story. So if Brown says something, lets misconstrue whatever he says, and if he says nothing, lets speculate idly anyway.

As for Blair, what is he supposed to do, give a date and instantly become a lame duck, or decline to give a precise date, in which case the media will do it for him anyway and quite likely orchestrate his downfall.

This isnt some kind of perverse beauty contest, this is about the leadership of our country, and there is not much more serious than that, for all concerned.

I don't think that Gordon Brown has orchestrated these latest events. He would be daft if he had. He doesn't need to. Tony Blair is getting it horribly wrong all by himself. I feel TB has completely lost touch and doesn't realise just WHY he is being asked to go - even his own MPs realise that TB and his blinkered, lame policies and glossy spin on poor results simply has to stop. Enough is enough: health, education, law and order - it's all a shambles and spiraling out of countrol - and costing a fortune owing to imcompetence and privitisation. It has been said many times and I really do feel that it's true: Labour is extremely right-wing and the damage caused is immense. So, it is high time for great pressure to be exterted upon the architect of these disasterous policies - not forgetting Iraq and Afghanistan, of course - and TB should be ousted now. What a great disappointment he has been, and what great damage his conceit has done to the whole nation.

Chris Mole's statement

As you will have gathered from recent media coverage, I have joined with a group of colleagues who were elected in 2001 to ask the Prime Minister to consider leaving office sooner rather than later.

This I believe leaves me in a difficult position as a Parliamentary Private Secretary and I have consequently resigned from the government.

I strongly believe the Prime Minister has lost the confidence of too many colleagues and more widely within the membership of the Labour Party and that renewal can only follow a change of leadership, our fortunes will not recover until that change has taken place.

I am confident that I have reflected the views of the constituency party in taking this step.

Whilst the letter was intended to be private, it has unfortunately become public leading to the resignation of a junior minister and a number of other colleagues. I had hoped that the Prime Minister would have been able to see that this was not a group of the usual suspects, but mainstream, supportive colleagues who fear for the interest of the party and country. Whilst I welcome the indication that the PM will have left office by July 2007, I want to see a more concrete indication that a transition to a new leader is being actively planned.

I guess you guys in ‘the media’ have an inside track (?) on Gordon Brown's involvement in today's machinations, but it certainly looks that way.

Surely this must harm his leadership hopes. How could anyone who wants power that badly deserve to get it ? On the other hand, if he does manage to turn work this blunt interference to his advantage over the coming weeks and months and into a successful leadership campaign - maybe he is the man for the job ? Doesn't say much for the state of British democracy though - does it ?

Dear Mr Mole,

"Whilst the letter was intended to be private, it has unfortunately become public ..."

Give us a break.

Is Gordon behind it all? Maybe yes maybe no. The lack of a supportive statement for his boss suggests that Brown is happy to see Blair in trouble.

The truth is Gordon is in trouble because he knows that a smooth transition to power is now not possible, he may not even make it. If he does manage it he also knows that he would fall once he put himself in front of the British electorate.

The game is up Brown. You have played it badly and your eagerness for the top job as outed you as cynical and disloyal.

Sorry forgot to mention nerdy and dour.

I have felt for a long time that TB will hang on long enough to ensure that Brown is un-electable as leader. Oh, did I suggest that the new leader should be elected rather than gifted from above? Sorry TB, but as we have never had it so good - one of your direct forbears said that by the way - it is perhaps the act of an ingrate not to accept such a northern peach.

By the way, just between you and me, are we to be allowed to keep the Queen? Perhaps she is a security risk holding so much power - or rather - denying so much power to president Blair et al.

I agree. TB will hang on long enough to fulfill his aims - to sink the Labour Party. It is, after all, hardly recognisable as a party that once had a moral core. I hope Gordon Brown is behind it, but should Blair be able to just walk away from the unlawful invasion of Iraq? Impeach Blair and be done with him.

I agree. TB will hang on long enough to fulfill his aims - to sink the Labour Party. It is, after all, hardly recognisable as a party that once had a moral core. I hope Gordon Brown is behind it, but should Blair be able to just walk away from the unlawful invasion of Iraq? Impeach Blair and be done with him.

It must be the Tory party who really want him to go, and who wants this sorry debate to go on and on.
The Tories must be considering Gordon Brown a much easier man to beat, in charming the british television viewing electorate. Gordon Brown has never had the same clarity and charm, he has a brilliant economic policy mind, but is unfortunately not an easy to sell "product".
One wonders if the opposition would be so keen if a man like Jack Straw was to be the next leader?

Brown is where he was during the fuel protests-missing! Some future leader!!

Brown does not have to do anything, just bide his time and Blair will continue to dig so deep a hole he won't be able to get out......at last and good riddance.

why should Gordon Brown be the new leader of the labour party when he has agreed with every policy to date with Tony Blair,if heaven forbid that he becomes the prime minister the English electorate can look forward to the socialist policies that we endure north of the border, how can the English politicians allow a great moderniser like Tony Blair be pushed from office in such a manner!

Blair and Brown share the same political project and are divided essentially by competing personal ambitions.Their project was and is to make the Labour Party an entirely safe alternative to The Tories,involving an acceptance (indeed a hope) that capitalism will be with us forever and that the task of "progressives" is to do no more than promote a greater equality of opportunity within the very narrow limits that capitalism allows, a project undermined by their personal and political ties with rich people.

Gordon Brown may not wish to get rid of inheritance tax (don't be so sure) but he certainly doesn't wish to increase it.

The task of socialists is to build an international movement. The prospect of the Labour Party having a role in this is sadly remote.

Without a shadow of a doubt Brown and his cronies are behind this, as they have been behind all the briefing against the Blair government. What we have seen is the longest sulk in government history! Ask yourself this, would any chancellor have lasted this long in a Thatcher government if he/she constantly betrayed their own side?

There is a reason why Brown was rejected by the Labour electorate for the top job - they recognised his complete unsuitability for the post.

I sincerely hope that Brown fails in this bid to oust Blair, and that whenever the election comes he is rejected again by the party.

This man lacks integrity and honesty.

Gordon Brown and his underlings are undoubtedly behind this constant campaign to undermine Tony Blair. I think Brown has demonstrated a complete lack of integrity and has undermined Blair at every opportunity. He is touted as a "successful" Chancellor but only by mortgaging all our futures with his heavy borrowing and Public/Private partnerships for the NHS, Schools etc.

I wouldn't trust him to run a corner shop let alone govern Britain. I don't think he is capable of being Prime Minister. He should be careful what he wishes for as he might just get it. Then we would all be in deep trouble!

As lifelong Labour supporter (apart from the period of the Footist 'longest suicude letter in history'), I am appalled by what is going on at the moment. I've got used to the dinosaurs like Dobson, Short, Marshall-Andrews & Abbott ( all probably very wealthy, if not millionaires), spreading their poison; not one of them capable of running a bath, let alone a government department, appalls me. Having to listen to loads of totally insignificant second raters, being disloyal to a prime minister elected less than two years ago , is outrageous.
Let me make this clear. Tony Blair has said that he is going before the next election; if, as I suspect, Mr Brown tries to engineer an early exit, i will never, ever, vote Labour (new or old) again. I can't see that any Labour supporter would be disappointed in its stewardship of domestic affairs. As we all know, the problem has been on foreign policy. Is anybody seriously suggesting that this would have been different under another leader or the Tories?!?
The day that Tony Blair is forces out of office will be the day that my Labour Party card/subscription will be forfeited!

Knowing how to control the purse is no qualification for leading a country. Hiding behind the battlements of the treasury whilst your knights sally forth on your behalf shows us all that power is what Brown wants. What we need for a leader is someone prepared to come out and say their piece. At least you can disagree with them, isn't that what democracy is supposed to be about?

The media, Blair, Brown, their cronies, Tom Watson and his fellow six naive, self-consumed colleagues all need to remember that the Labour Leader is chosen by all MPs, affiliated TU members and those of us who continue to pay to carry party membership cards. It just goes to show how insulated from reality so many of you in 'the Westminster village' have become. The party is bigger than any of these so-called "figures" who all need to start looking beyond their own noses and focus opn the wider, far more relevant issues.

Tony Blair has done a wonderful job as Prime Minister and I for one would be happy to see him carry on until the electorate decided his time was up.
Brown as PM, after all his blatant underming of Blair and the Labour Party he deserves to be cast into the shadows.

Tony Blair leadership died when he took British troops to Iraq without the blessing of the people who elected him, so what is happening to him now is bearing the fruits of not listening. A leader who does not listen to its people is not worth listening to. So Tony go in peace so that we can pick the pieces.

The next Jim Callghan awaits his fate or does he? Labour MP's did not vote for Brown first time round because Blair was a better bet at securing their seats and now they will vote for someone else again because Brown is simply not electable. I am sure everyone has assured Gordon of their intention to vote for him but when it comes down to the wire electoral expediency and the average MP's instinct to survive will triumph over strong arm Brownites. It hasn't got to be Gordons:)

Blair lingering in office is undermining the Labour Party nationally.If he puts aside his egotistic desire to hang on to power and goes now he may well achieve a little dignity in his departure.

When the public are not listening and your own party wants you to go what is the point of hanging on? Unless, your real aim his to harm the Party and undermine the chances of your successor winning the next election.

We all know that Blair cannot go on for much longer and I suspect that a Brown 'coronation' is far from certain. What I find bewildering is the assumption that Labour can go on forever. This bungled attempt to move forward can only add to the perception that Labour as whole could run a social function in a drinks manufacturing facility, still less a country. Remember the demise of Mr. Callaghan and take heed.

So, its been clear for some time that Blair is losing support from all over (except perhaps in the US) for some time. My point here is the support is dissapearing because of policy (home and foreign). Why should we as the electorate firstly have to accept this proposed coronation of Brown as our PM - and secondly has he had anything at all to say of substance on foreign policy?
Maybe Brown is starting to see that it will not be all about "assumed rights because he backed Tony up 12 or so years ago" but "substantial policies that are for the good and meet the wishes of the British electorate" and he realizes that he needs to get the agenda back

Hi NewsNight. I must have almost written myself out of ideas, but reading the above letters, I find there is both a hate commentary for both Blair & Brown, which might end in Blair's speach to the Nation this afternoon. Memories of Thatcher turn up, and now we have big game hunting. Brown has never been a favourite of mine, and I do not think he has the guts (by his recent showing)and power to keep his Party, the Trade Unions and public together.One of the last times I saw him on TV, was when he made his yearly speech, and defied all those in white or black tie, by wearing a lounge suit,with a normal tie.Was he being brave or bringing unwanted attention to himself. I thought then, heaven save us from a PM such as him, and I still think it. Unfortunately being an ex-pat in France, under new British rules I cannot vote in a general election, even by proxy. I think, at this moment we are between the frying pan and the fire, thanks to Brown and his cronies. The Conservatives and Liberals are a load of **. May I dare ask the Editor and presenters of Newsnight,what they think? Jennifer W

Hi NewsNight. I must have almost written myself out of ideas, but reading the above letters, I find there is both a hate commentary for both Blair & Brown, which might end in Blair's speach to the Nation this afternoon. Memories of Thatcher turn up, and now we have big game hunting. Brown has never been a favourite of mine, and I do not think he has the guts (by his recent showing)and power to keep his Party, the Trade Unions and public together.One of the last times I saw him on TV, was when he made his yearly speech, and defied all those in white or black tie, by wearing a lounge suit,with a normal tie.Was he being brave or bringing unwanted attention to himself. I thought then, heaven save us from a PM such as him, and I still think it. Unfortunately being an ex-pat in France, under new British rules I cannot vote in a general election, even by proxy. I think, at this moment we are between the frying pan and the fire, thanks to Brown and his cronies. The Conservatives and Liberals are a load of **. May I dare ask the Editor and presenters of Newsnight,what they think? Jennifer W

Brown is tainted .....parrallels with Hesseltine.....he will now not lead....Reginald Maudling revisited...he has now forced a new leader to emerge.....bye bye Gordon

Yes Gordon Brown is behind all the problems with he is a disgrace to the party and I hope he does NOT get the leadership job. If he can do this to our Prime Minister he cannot be trusted and is a traitor.

I find it funny how people kept going on about the Blair Brown feud even though it was mostly just speculation and everyone saying how bad Blair was not stepping aside, now decide on whole new set of speculation that Brown is the bad guy stabbing his leader in the back after all he's done

Browns' naked ambition is breath taking

Gordon Brown is not behind it, he is in front of it (all).