Brown's woes mount as junior minister quits

A junior minister resigned from Gordon Brown's government yesterday, in the highest-profile revolt since a group of Labour Party dissenters began calling for a new leader.

Earlier yesterday, Mr Brown's Labour Party rejected calls for a leadership election that would have threatened his 15-month-old premiership when the party holds its decision-making annual conference from Saturday.

The minister who quit was David Cairns from the Scotland Office. In the past week, two members of Parliament have been fired from government jobs for expressing dissatisfaction with Mr Brown and a third resigned after saying he should be challenged.

"The Prime Minister has accepted David Cairns's resignation. The exercise of government demands collective responsibility," Mr Brown's office said in a statement.

Rising food and energy prices, a slump in house prices and job losses since the global credit crunch began have increased voters' discontent with Labour, which trails the opposition Conservatives by about 20 points in opinion polls.

A rise in annual inflation in August to a 16-year high and a slump in British share prices yesterday amid financial market turmoil underlined the pressure on Mr Brown as he tries to head off recession and regain his party's confidence.

Mr Brown, 57, took over from Tony Blair as Prime Minister in June 2007, but has failed to capture the public's imagination. Some Labour members say he is incapable of leading the party to victory in the next general election, due by mid-2010.

Some Labour leaders rallied around Mr Brown yesterday. Finance Minister Alistair Darling said he had "every confidence" in Mr Brown, and former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said there was "nobody better" to run the country.

The party's National Executive Committee (NEC) also backed him by rejecting requests from a dozen Labour politicians to send out nomination papers for a leadership contest ahead of the conference in the northern city of Manchester.

The rebellion has sabotaged Mr Brown's attempts to relaunch his premiership after a series of local election defeats.