FORMER minister and Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle has added his voice to those calling for Gordon Brown to face a leadership challenge.
He joins two other Merseyside MPs, George Howarth and Frank Field, who have asked for nomination papers to be released in a bid to trigger a challenge this autumn.
Mr Kilfoyle said: “I think at the very least Gordon Brown needs to be reaffirmed as leader, and the only way to do that is to have a leadership contest.”
The rebel MPs have requested that leadership nomination forms are issued to all MPs ahead of the party’s conference.
They need 20% – or 71 MPs – to nominate a challenger to trigger a leadership election.
Another former minister, George Howarth, who represents Knowsley North and Sefton East, urged Mr Brown to “give somebody else a chance” if he could not recapture the public’s trust urgently.
“Sadly, every test of public opinion shows people seem to have decided Gordon is not the person they want to lead the country,” he said.
But leading Cabinet ministers rejected calls for the challenge – though acknowledged the Government had to do better.
Business Secretary John Hutton said he did not dismiss the rebels’ concerns, but refused to join their calls for a change of leader.
“I’m not gong to criticise any of my colleagues who want Labour to do better and neither am I going to criticise those who say, for example, that we do need to set out a stronger vision of what we are doing,” he told the BBC.
“It is a difficult political climate for us.
“So I think my colleagues are right to say the Government need to do better. We are 20 percentage points behind in the opinion polls. And that is a challenge to all of us in the Cabinet to do better – not just to Gordon as prime minister.”
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is seen as a potential successor to Mr Brown, said he also did not agree with calls for a leadership election. But he went on: “I think there’s a recognition from the top of the party down, from Gordon down, that these are very, very challenging times for the Labour Party.”
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn and Chief Whip Geoff Hoon also hit the television and radio studios to argue against a leadership bid.
The crisis engulfing the premier, which comes ahead of Labour’s annual conference, escalated over the weekend with the sacking of a second Labour figure in as many days.
Joan Ryan was dismissed as Labour’s vice chairman and Mr Brown’s envoy to Cyprus for calling for a leadership election. On Friday, assistant whip Siobhain McDonagh lost her job for making the same demand.
