Labour rules out leadership battle

Brown comes face-to-face with rebels
Labours National Executive Committee has ruled out sending party members leadership nomination papers.Rebels had planned to use the meeting to force senior party figures to abide by an obscure clause in the party's constitution saying the papers should be sent out every year just before the party conference. In a statement, the committee said: "The Labour party National Executive Committee is in agreement that internal procedural debates will not divert the Labour Party from our mission of building a fairer Britain and helping people through these challenging times." Referring to the refusal of general secretary Ray Collins to distribute the forms yesterday, the committee continued: "The NEC fully endorses the view of the Labour party's general secretary and the party's independent legal advisors. "A leadership election when in government can only be held if requested by a majority of party conference on a card vote, only Labour MPs can trigger the process and the NEC is confident that most MPs know their responsibilities under the rules." The news came just moments after it was revealed Janet Anderson, one of the Labour rebels, pulled out of this morning's meeting. The meeting comes as at least one anonymous minister told media sources he was considering quitting the government, indicating the rebels' attempt to gain high-level support may be proving successful. "You can't go on saying 'I think Gordon Brown is the man to lead us to victory' when you don't believe it," he told the BBC. Health secretary Alan Johnson called for the party to pull together after a Cabinet meeting this morning. "Unity is essential in a political party," he said. The party's chairman, Tony Lloyd, tried to play down the extent of discontent. "What we don't need is a long period of introspection, gazing at our own navels, because the British public expects better than that," he said. "There are a very, very small number of people who have been agitating in recent days. For anyone to launch a serious leadership challenge requires many, many, many more MPs than those that were available in the last few days." Yesterday, a third rebel – forestry envoy Barry Gardiner – lost his position for calling for calling on the clause to be implemented. The sacking follows that of Siobhain McDonagh, junior whip, and Joan Ryan, vice chair. Later in ther evening another former minister, Gisela Stuart, joined the revolt. "It became clear that not only had we failed to renew ourselves with fresh ideas, we also seem to have lost the knack to tell a good story," she said. A party spokesperson refused to disclose further details of today's executive meeting to politics.co.uk, saying it concerned "party matters".

Brown fires another rebel MP