GORDON Brown will face another leadership challenge before the end of the year, Lord Mandelson has warned, believing the threat to Mr Brown will re-emerge at the party’s annual conference in September.
Lord Mandelson, who is effectively Deputy Prime Minister after being made First Secretary of State earlier this month, said some Labour MPs will never accept Mr Brown as party leader and will continue the fight to oust him.
"There's a small group who keep coming back... they wouldn't have voted for him in the first place," Mandelson told a national newspaper.
However, he said he would not “lose any sleep” over their plots.
His prediction comes just days after the Prime Minister successfully survived Labour’s disastrous showing in the local and European elections and the resignation of a raft of high-profile ministers prior to a recent Cabinet reshuffle.
On Monday Mr Brown was also forced to face the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster to shore up an increasingly tenuous position.
In the same interview Lord Mandelson suggested levity and humour were important qualities in a leader, in what could be taken as a veiled criticism of Mr Brown who has developed a reputation as a dour leader compared to his predecessor Tony Blair.
The Prime Minister’s chief political advisor said: “You don’t have to be too grey or serious the whole time. You can do your work and enjoy it at the same time and include people along the way.
“I believe in leadership and in being decisive…and introducing a bit of humour and jollity to your work,” he added.
The First Secretary of State’s warnings came as David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, admitted he came very close to joining his friend and ally, James Purnell, in handing in his resignation from the government on the night of the European elections.
In a revealing interview Mr Miliband told the Guardian: “I’d made my decision on Thursday. Sometimes you can make your decisions with great planning and calculation and sometimes you have to make them rather more quickly.
“I made my decision in good faith… we all have to live with our decisions.”
He also added the issue of Mr Brown’s leadership was in danger of splitting the party.
Mr Miliband said: "This divides people who are close and people feel passionately one way and people feel passionately the other way."
As the countdown to the latest point Labour can call the next General Election reaches 11 months Mr Miliband added Labour should be prepared for the fight of its life after only one in 20 people voted them in Wales, a former Labour heartland.
He claimed many voters no longer knew what Labour stood for.
Source:The times
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