LONDON (AFP) — A junior minister resigned from Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government on Tuesday, increasing the pressure for a leadership challenge against the embattled Labour Party leader.
Scotland Office minister David Cairns, a low-level member of the British government, is the first minister to resign from Brown's administration in the crisis of confidence creeping up on his premiership.
Cairns said it was time to "take the bull by the horns" as "the debate is now on" about Brown's leadership and "to go on denying it is hardly credible."
Many in Brown's governing Labour Party are dismayed at opinion polls showing the main opposition Conservatives leading Labour by more than 20 points with a general election looming by May 2010.
A growing band of disgruntled Labour lawmakers have called for a leadership contest. But former Roman Catholic priest Cairns is the most senior so far.
In his resignation letter, the 42-year-old Scot said that though Labour lawmakers were discussing Brown's stewardship of the centre-left party, it was the government's response to the "crisis" that had riled him.
"Rather than seizing the opportunity to open out to the broader party membership a discussion that is being held in private, our response... has been to suggest that these were the actions of a tiny number of disaffected people," he said.
"In any event the debate is now on. The issue of leadership and direction are being discussed and argued over, and to go on denying it is hardly credible," he said.
"I wish it were otherwise. To that end I believe that the time has come to take the bull by the horns and allow a leadership debate to run its course," he added.
Accepting Cairns' resignation with "regret," Brown said it was vital that the government and the country stood together in the face of global economic upheaval.
"I am therefore disappointed by your decision to leave the government, and I do not agree with you that this is the time at which the Labour Party should be focused on internal debates," the 57-year-old wrote.
"I will always respect the views of others both in the party and the government but believe that both function best when we show unity."
Brown's Downing Street office announced Cairns' replacement shortly after.
After weeks of Labour backbenchers attacking Brown's performance, junior government figure Siobhain McDonagh was fired on Friday after becoming the first member of Brown's administration to call openly for a leadership challenge. Cairns, more senior, is the second.
A cabinet minister, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, said it would be "ridiculous" to deny there were discussions going on behind the scenes over Brown's future.
"It would be stretching credulity to suggest these conversations aren't happening in the Labour party because clearly they are," Purnell said in the Evening Standard newspaper Tuesday.
But he denied the prime minister would be out of his job within months, saying: "I nominated Gordon Brown, I'm a member of his cabinet and I support him."
Rebels who want to ditch Brown are attempting to build up the pressure against him in the run-up to Labour's five-day annual conference, which opens Saturday in Manchester.
All eyes are on whether Brown can do enough at the conference to silence the snipers.
They hope their actions will help turn the tide against Brown by encouraging other, more senior figures -- such as a big-name cabinet member -- to break ranks and join them.
The Press Association news agency said several ministerial aides had privately indicated they might quit.
In September 2006, the resignations of seven people in such posts helped push Brown's predecessor Tony Blair into announcing his plans to stand down.
Anyone wishing to challenge formally for the leadership has to gain the support of 20 percent of Labour lawmakers -- currently 71 -- and seek nomination before the party conference.
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