Brown tries to stamp out leadership challenge

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown moved yesterday to stamp out the biggest threat yet to his 15-month-old premiership, sacking a Labour official who accused him of "timorous" political manoeuvring. Mr Brown fired Barry Gardiner as his representative on forestry, a day after he joined a dozen other Labour members of Parliament in challenging Mr Brown's leadership.

Mr Brown has already dismissed two other dissidents from junior government posts after they called for a leadership contest, saying Labour needed a debate on its direction after 11 years in power. But Mr Brown has failed to quell a growing chorus of dissent within his own party at the way he has led the country since taking over as Prime Minister from Tony Blair in June last year.

The rebellion comes at a crucial time, a week before Labour's annual conference in Manchester, and has sabotaged Mr Brown's attempts to relaunch his premiership after the credit crunch and rising prices sent his popularity plummeting.

After a series of crushing election reverses and with Labour trailing the opposition Conservatives in the polls by 20 points, Labour politicians are increasingly questioning whether Mr Brown has what it takes to lead a country on the verge of recession.

The internal feud only damages Labour further with voters.

Mr Gardiner accused Mr Brown in a Sunday newspaper column of "vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand."

Questions over Mr Brown's future could overshadow the Labour conference, but the rebels who have spoken out so far are relatively minor figures and no heavyweight challenger to Mr Brown has yet emerged who could become a focal point for the revolt.