Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a renewed challenge to his leadership on Monday after support for the ruling Labour Party plunged to its lowest level in a century in European elections.
Compounding Labour's woes, the far-right British National Party won two seats in the European Parliament for the first time. The BNP gained the seats in two regions of northern England at the expense of Brown's Labour Party, which has been hurt by a scandal over politicians' expenses.
Brown, who reshuffled his government after six ministers resigned last week, was set to meet on Monday evening with Labour members of parliament, a number of whom have called on him to quit ahead of a general election due within a year.
The political turmoil rattled markets last week, pushing the pound lower. Investors are wary of uncertainty when Britain faces its deepest recession since World War Two and the budget deficit has reached a record 175 billion pounds ($281 billion).
Brown's departure would almost certainly precipitate an early general election which the centre-right opposition Conservatives are expected to win after 12 years out of power. They are yet to flesh out their plans for restoring order to public finances.
A projection for the BBC put Labour on 16 percent of the vote, just behind the anti-European Union UK Independence Party and 11 points adrift of the main opposition Conservatives who are also critical of the EU.
Labour's share of the vote was down about seven points from the last European election in 2004.
MESSAGE TO YOU, GORDON
The performance gave fresh ammunition to Brown's critics in the Labour Party after a traumatic week in which one departing minister, James Purnell, called on Brown to step aside and said he was an electoral liability.
Former finance minister Brown has not faced the electorate since he took over as prime minister from Tony Blair in 2007.
"If Labour MPs and Gordon Brown don't get the message from these results we are finished," said left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell, noting that Labour's share of the vote was its lowest in a nationwide election since 1910.
"The message is clear, we need a complete change of political direction," he added.
Former Labour minister Charles Falconer called for a change at the top to improve Labour's chances in the general election.
Rebels among Labour members of parliament (MPs) are said to be canvassing support for a letter calling on Brown to go.
Critics say Labour lacks a coherent policy agenda and that Brown is indecisive and a poor communicator, adding he appears to be unable to transfer his confidence on the world economic stage to domestic politics.
British newspapers reported on Monday that Brown would delay the planned privatisation of postal group Royal Mail, on price grounds, and announce an Iraq war inquiry within days.
A delay on Royal Mail would help curb Labour internal divisions after 140 MPs signed a motion opposing the deal.
Brown told supporters on Sunday he would not walk away from the country's troubles.
Political commentators said fringe and protest parties had gained from anger with the mainstream parties after disclosures that MPs had charged the taxpayer for everything from dog food to the cost of cleaning a moat. Turnout was also low -- with only around a third of voters having bothered to cast ballots. "There's always a strong Eurosceptic current running through the UK ... I think it's a mixture of Euroscepticism (and) clearly the MPs' expenses," Ivor Gaber, professor of political campaigning at London's City University, told Reuters.