Brown’s Authority Hurt as Fourth U.K. Government Minister Quits

June 3 (Bloomberg) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown lost a fourth minister from his government this week, undermining his authority to lead the U.K.’s ruling Labour Party.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said today she’d resign her post after Brown criticized expenses she charged taxpayers. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Beverly Hughes, a minister in charge of policy on children, are also leaving. Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson hasn’t denied media reports he’s quitting.
The departures open a rift at the heart of Brown’s government similar to the one that brought down Margaret Thatcher 19 years. Brown is considering whether to replace Alistair Darling as his chancellor of the exchequer as a way to revitalize Labour’s popularity a year before the deadline for the next election.
“Gordon is effectively dead in the water,” said Bill Jones, a professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University. “Replacing the loyalist Alistair Darling is not going to improve his standing.”
Blears has come under pressure after it was revealed in the Daily Telegraph newspaper that she did not pay tax when selling a property on which she had claimed taxpayer-funded expenses. She later repaid 13,000 pounds ($21,500). Brown later called her behavior “totally unacceptable.”
Blears’ Comment
“I want to help the Labour Party to reconnect with the British people, to remind them that our values are their values, that their hopes and dreams are ours too,” Blears said
Smith today said she was stepping aside for personal reasons and not to destabilize Brown. “It leaves the prime minister where he should be, focusing on running the country,” Smith told Sky News. “He has my unwavering support. He has my respect.”
Removing Darling, who manages the Treasury and is the second-most powerful Cabinet member, would mirror the shake-up that preceded Thatcher’s downfall. When Thatcher sidelined her then-deputy, Geoffrey Howe, he quit, triggering a rebellion that forced her out within a month.
Darling, 55, has served as a Cabinet troubleshooter since the Labour Party took office in 1997, defusing controversies over nuclear power, pensions and welfare benefits. He and Brown have held parliamentary seats near each other in Scotland since the 1980s. Darling is one of two people to have been in the Cabinet as long as Brown.
‘Messy Divorce’
“Darling’s got to be handled with real care,” said Philip Cowley, professor of politics at Nottingham University. “If it’s a messy divorce, it could be very messy indeed.”
An ICM Ltd. survey published May 31 showed Labour lagging behind both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats for the first time in 22 years.
Backing for Brown is melting away from traditional sympathizers. The Guardian newspaper, which supports Labour, told the party it was “time to cut him loose.”
“People will be asking themselves can this government govern?” Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, told BBC Radio 4. “This feeling that people can’t run things at the center because there’s such disarray is very unsettling indeed. Half the government is heading for the exit and the other half is plotting.”
Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman said the prime minister could still win an election. “Reshuffles are always unsettling,” she told the BBC. “I don’t accept that he can’t keep a grip on government. The Guardian are wrong to say that Gordon Brown and the government have no plan and no vision.”
Blows to Brown
Brown has been hit by a series of blows over the past two months. In April, he fired his media adviser, Damian McBride, over a planned campaign to spread rumors about opposition leaders. In the past three weeks, the Daily Telegraph has published details of expense claims showing lawmakers taking taxpayer cash for swimming-pool cleaning, a massage chair, and, in the case of Smith, her husband’s adult films.
Darling this week apologized for expense claims and said he’d repay about 600 pounds ($1,000) he claimed in expenses relating to an apartment he had in London.
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, an economic adviser to Brown between 1994 and 2005, is the bookmakers’ favorite to replace Darling. He’s so close to Brown that other ministers may bristle at the promotion, said Jones of Liverpool Hope University.
Appointing Balls also would signal a shift away from Darling’s effort to put a lid on the deficit. While Darling set out plans in his annual budget to curtail spending growth, Balls on May 28 said he was “confident we will continue to see real increases in spending for health and education.”
Balls Strategy
Balls, 42, wants higher spending to underpin an economic recovery and draw a dividing line with the Conservatives, who say the Treasury can’t afford it. Brown adopted that line in this week’s election campaign.
A spending spree would counter calls by Standard & Poor’s and the International Monetary Fund, which have advised the U.K. to curb the deficit. S&P last month lowered its outlook for the U.K.’s top credit rating, saying a deficit above 12 percent of gross domestic product isn’t compatible with a AAA grade.
Thatcher resigned in November 1990 after support from her own Cabinet evaporated. Howe served her for 11 years, first as chancellor and then as foreign secretary and then deputy prime minister.
Unhappy with Thatcher’s increasingly autocratic style, he quit his Cabinet post and gave a speech attacking her policies and management ways. It led Michael Heseltine to challenge her for the party’s leadership, precipitating her downfall.
“Howe took it, and took it, and took it, and took it and then snapped,” said Cowley of Nottingham University. “And the attack, when it came, was more damaging because it was Howe.”