Britse premier onder toenemende druk om op te stappen (en)
Pressure on UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign is growing, after another minister quit his government on Thursday (4 June) and with his Labour party expected to show a disastrous result in Thursday's EU and local elections.
While announcing his own resignation, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, who was seen as a moderniser and a possible leadership candidate, called on the prime minister to step down too.
"Dear Gordon ...I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely," he wrote in a letter made available to several British newspapers.
"I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our Party a fighting chance of winning. As such I am resigning from government," he added.
A Downing Street spokesman told the BBC the prime minister was "disappointed by the resignation of James Purnell."
He said Mr Brown's focus over coming days would be "restructuring the government on the big challenges facing the country for the future." Anonymous government sources said there was "no chance" the prime minister would resign.
Mr Purnell is the third cabinet minister to resign in the past three days.
Communities secretary Hazel Blears stepped down on Wednesday, following the recent revelations about MPs' abuses of the expenses system. Home secretary Jacqui Smith said she would go after a government reshuffle, which could take place as early as Friday, according to media reports.
Mr Brown might also choose to wait until Monday, when the European elections results will be released, AFP writes.
The reshuffle will be closely watched, as it may see other government ministers turn their backs on the premier. Finance minister Alistair Darling and foreign secretary David Miliband have made it clear they would like to keep their posts, so that moving them could have troublesome consequences.
Mr Miliband has for now stressed he is "not resigning" and "does not agree with his friend's [James Purnell's] decision," however.
Government falling apart
Reacting to Mr Purnell's move, opposition leader David Cameron said it was a death blow to the government and reiterated calls for an immediate general election.
"With this resignation, the argument for a general election has gone from being strong and powerful to completely unanswerable," the Conservative leader said.
"In a deep recession and a political crisis we need a strong united government. Instead we have a government falling apart in front of our eyes."
The prospect of a snap general election and a potential Tory victory spells turbulence for Brussels, with Mr Cameron having promised to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty and to call for the EU to return powers to London.
Meanwhile, senior Labour MP Barry Sheerman told the BBC there should be an internal vote in the party to see if Mr Brown should keep his post.
"This goes far beyond just a few people, this is a large number of us who are really unhappy about the present situation," Mr Sheerman said.
A draft letter signed by some 75 Labour MPs so far is due to be circulated on Friday calling on Mr Brown to resign.
But the premier also has his supporters within the party, with former London mayor Ken Livingstone saying: "I think he [the prime minister] is getting economic policy right and I really don't think a coup in the parliamentary party ...would do anything other than mean a landslide for the Tories."
Meanwhile, the first results of Thursday's local elections – which took place at the same time as the UK's Euro vote – showed Labour would lose eight councillors in two councils to the benefit of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
The European vote results will not be made known before Sunday however, together with the results of the other EU countries.
Polls have indicated that Labour could be pushed into third place, after the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, with some predicting it could even fall fourth, behind the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
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