Gordon Brown to be Out of Office Soon Say Bookies
Online bookies in the UK have begun slashing odds further on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown being out of office before the next general elections. This follows news that yet another cabinet minister has resigned.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson is widely considered the favorite to succeed Brown.
The current Prime Minister was dealt a serious blow on Wednesday when Hazel Blears, the nation's secretary of state for communities and local government, became the latest casualty of British politics after following The Daily Telegraph newspaper story that legislators, including Ms. Blears, used a parliamentary expenses system for personal gain.
"Today I have told the Prime Minister that I am resigning from the government," she said in a statement.
Blears' decision to quit, on the eve of European and local elections in which Brown's party faces a rout, followed a similar move by interior minister Jacqui Smith and pre-empted a widely-expected cabinet reshuffle.
Saying she wanted to focus on her Manchester constituency in northern England, she said: "Most of all I want to help the Labor party to reconnect with the British people."
Brown's Labor party trails the opposition Conservatives by up to 20 points with a general election due by mid-2010 and has pinned any hope of bouncing back on a fast improvement in Britain's recession-hit economy.
Brown's reshuffle, which could come as early as Friday, had been seen as an opportunity to revive his flagging fortunes. But analysts said the resignations would probably dampen its impact.
"They are uninterested in Gordon Brown and the appearance of Gordon Brown's government, they are doing this for their own sake," said Tony Travers, politics professor at London School of Economics.
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