Brown 'as unpopular as Chamberlain'

Brown 'as unpopular as Chamberlain'
Gordon Brown is as unpopular as wartime leader Neville Chamberlain, according to one of the Labour rebels.George Howarth, one of the Labour MPs pushing for a leadership contest, told BBC's Newsnight last night: "He's so unpopular that no one can remember a time since Neville Chamberlain, after Hitler invaded Norway, that anyone was so unpopular. "And we can't allow that situation to continue." Mr Chamberlain is reserved a special place in British political history for his appeasement of Adolf Hitler when he invaded Czechoslovakia, although some more recent historians have treated him more sympathetically. There is considerable anger from within the party at the behaviour of the rebels, with many members irritated at what they see as an attempt to destabilise Mr Brown just before the conference. But rebels have implied the party leadership leaked their names to the press. "I didn't leak the letters that said we wanted a leadership contest," Mr Howarth said. "Others who did that may have to answer for their actions at some point in the future," he said. Similar suspicions are swirling around the gradual revelation of David Cairns' name yesterday. Some sources are suggesting the government leaked his name after media sources quoted an anonymous minister saying he was weighing up whether to resign. What has become clear is that Mr Cairns had little intention of resigning yesterday, but that his position became untenable once his name became public. That fact bodes well for the prime minister, indicating there is still no coordinated attempt to raise the stakes against him.

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