Another member of Gordon Browns cabinet quits

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Elections close, knives out for Gordon Brown (04Jun09)

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There is yet more bad news for Gordon Brown as the Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell has resigned from the Cabinet and has publicly called on the PM to quit.

It's now official and out in the open that someone has officialy said Brown should go.

Purnell said in a letter to the Times and Sun newspapers that Brown's continued leadership of the party made a Conservative victory at the next general election "more not less likely".

Polls across the UK have closed and at this time tomorrow we'll know for sure if the Prime Minister is finished.

Voting is expected to be bad for Brown's labour and if recent polls is anything to go by, it had Labour as the third party in government if a general election was held today.

Today Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland voted for a European MP - so did England  but they also voted for 27 county councils, seven unitary council elections - and for three mayors.

Mr Purnell confirmed in his letter he was not chasing the leadership himself.

Purnell's resignation letter in full

Dear Gordon

We both love the Labour Party.

I have worked for it for twenty years and you for far longer. We know we owe it everything and it owes us nothing.

I owe it to our Party to say what I believe no matter how hard that may be. I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more not less likely

That would be disastrous for our country. This moment calls for stronger regulation, an active state, better public services, an open democracy.

It calls for a government that measures itself by how it treats the poorest in society. Those are our values, not David Cameron's.

We therefore owe it to our country to give it a real choice. We need to show that we are prepared to fight to be a credible government and have the courage to offer an alternative future.

I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our Party a fighting chance of winning. And as such I am resigning from Government.

The Party was here long before us, and we want it to be here long after we have gone. We must do the right thing by it.

I am not seeking the leadership, nor acting with anyone else. My actions are my own considered view, nothing more.

If the consensus is that you should continue, then I will support the government loyally from the backbenches. But I do believe that this question now needs to be put.

Thank you for giving me the privilege of serving.

Yours

Rt Hon James Purnell MP