LONDON (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown received a fresh blow to his leadership Saturday after the head of his Labour Party in Scotland, Wendy Alexander, resigned in a row over donations.
Alexander, who was suspended from the Scottish parliament Thursday for a day for failing to declare donations to her leadership campaign last year, said the issue had become a "distraction" from serious politics in Scotland.
The move came the day after Labour was pushed into fifth place in a by-election in Henley, behind fringe parties like the far-right British National Party, on the first anniversary of Brown taking over as premier from Tony Blair.
A string of recent opinion polls suggest that Labour faces defeat at the next general election, which must take place by mid-2010.
The latest telephone poll by ComRes in Saturday's Independent newspaper gave the main opposition Conservatives, led by David Cameron, 46 percent of voters' support compared with 25 percent for Labour. The poll surveyed a sampling of 1,007 people and was conducted this week.
Lord Michael Levy, Labour's fundraiser under Blair, said Friday the party should "seriously consider" getting rid of Brown, while backbench lawmaker Ronnie Campbell reportedly branded the leader "a loser".
There are more by-election worries ahead after Labour lawmaker David Marshall announced Saturday he was quitting the House of Commons because of ill-health, which will force a poll in Glasgow, Scotland.
And Scottish Labour now faces a leadership contest in the coming months which leaves it in flux as it battles the pro-independence policies of the Scottish National Party (SNP) which is in power in Edinburgh.
Alexander is the sister of one of Brown's closest allies, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander.
She took over as Labour's leader in Scotland last year, soon after the SNP led by Alex Salmond took power in the devolved Scottish government on a platform of full independence from England.
Last month, Wendy Alexander broke with Brown's position on how to tackle the nationalist threat by urging a referendum on the issue before 2010. The SNP wants a referendum in the second half of that year.
Brown, a Scot who is strongly opposed to Scottish independence, has long rejected the idea of a popular vote on the issue.
He pointedly refused to support Alexander's call in public and was reportedly furious with her in private.
Following her resignation announcement after just nine months in office, the prime minister praised Alexander's "commitment to devolution" and said she would be "greatly missed".
But Salmond's deputy as first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said Alexander's departure highlighted wider problems within Labour.
"Decay from within is characteristic of the decline of the New Labour project, and Wendy Alexander's resignation is a symptom of this wider malaise," she said.
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