Put Up or Shut Up

In recent months there has been increasing speculation about the future of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In the last few days it seems several MP's have begun openly calling for a leadership election.

This recent activity seems disjointed and sporadic with little planning or forethought, with some MP's getting over excited and expressing their own opinions without considering the dire consequences.

David Miliband, the most plausible challenger to Brown, has already said that he will not challenge Brown at the upcoming Labour Conference. He is arguably the only MP with the ability to mount a coup of this type and he has stated repeatedly his reluctance to do so.

Therefore this continued speculation is highly damaging to the Party, our electoral prospects and Britain, and it has to end right now before things getting out of hand and Gordon Brown's own electoral prospects are damaged beyond the point of no return. Without the presence of an organised plot, nothing is gained what-so-ever from challenging a sitting Prime Minister. We risk destroying ourselves and looking out of touch, we risk seeming more interested in our electoral chances than steering the country through these challenging economic times, which will be the nail in the coffin for this Government if we cannot rise to the difficult challenge.

Instead of allowing Gordon Brown to impose himself, his politics and his agenda, backbench MP's seem intend on savaging the PM. By doing so we are savaging ourselves and we need to stop looking like a bunch of clown's trying desperately to cling to power.

Instead we need to be uniting behind the Prime Minister and asking the real questions that need to be asked.

We need to be asking why David Cameron's party claims to be the party of social justice when they opposed the minimum wage, every penny of Labour's record investment in our schools, hospitals and transport system and why he wants to be as radical as Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister that plunged millions of working class Britons into a vicious circle of poverty.

We need to be asking Mr Cameron why he is proposing someone as Foreign Secretary who described the minimum wage as the single most dangerous piece of legislation in history. We need to be asking the Tories how exactly they are the party of social justice, when this government has built over 200 new hospitals, a 1000 new schools, guaranteed a minimum income for the poorest people and redistributed massively to ensure that all of the people share from all of the wealth that exists in Britain and we have been opposed every step of the way by Mr Cameron's small state, tax-cutting, backward Conservative Party.

Unless the rebels put up a credible challenge it is time for this reckless speculation to end. Labour Party Conference should be the opportunity for us to showcase the legacy of 11 years of Labour investment; but I fear that unfortunately if this talk carries on all we will be able to do is destroy ourselves.