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Labour is heading for "utter destruction" at the next election under Gordon Brown's leadership, Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, has said. Mr Clarke said he would "not permit" the Prime Minister to lead the party to a catastrophic defeat. His intervention revived speculation last night that Mr Brown will face pressure to stand down or be openly challenged this autumn.

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown is quite literally the stuff of nightmares, according to a survey. Mr Brown joins spiders, falling from a great height and Heather Mills in a list of things which have Britons waking in a cold sweat. He was named the third most nightmarish celebrity, behind singer Amy Winehouse and shock rocker Marilyn Manson. Simon Cowell, Cherie Blair and Chancellor Alistair Darling also figured highly. The survey of 3,500 people revealed one in 10 adults has suffered a nightmare in the past week alone, and women are more likely to be afflicted. Being chased is the...

Tax credits time bomb threatens to explode The nation will face a bill for £2.8 billion Jon Ungoed-Thomas ON February 26 last year, a manila envelope crammed full of documents arrived at a house on the Isle of Wight. Inside was a dossier that amounted to a detailed indictment of the tax credit fiasco that will cost the country as much as £2.8 billion. The documents - and tapes of telephone conversations that arrived some weeks later - were obtained under data protection laws and detailed the tax credit claim of Simon Blackmore, 38. He was being pursued for £6,057...

Barack Obama breezed into London and asked Gordon Brown every tourist’s favourite question: “Can you show me where the Queen lives?” The request prompted the PM to act as a VIP tour guide for the US senator hoping to become the most powerful man in the world. But alarmed US and British secret service officials curtailed their walkabout in front of a growing crowd of astonished tourists before the two leaders could get close to Buckingham Palace.

Gordon Brown is being openly undermined by Cabinet ministers who are now publicly questioning his future as Prime Minister. The Labour Party has no option but to replace him as leader or face certain defeat at the next general election, said one. Should he be forced to step down, Mr Brown would be the first Prime Minister since Neville Chamberlain not to fight a general election "We cannot go any lower," the minister said, following Labour's disastrous defeat in the Glasgow East by-election, one of the biggest upsets in political history. "We are at rock bottom. The evidence is there...

Gordon Brown’s worst nightmare was realised early today as the Scottish National Party triumphed by taking Glasgow East, one of Labour’s safest seats. The hopes of Labour strategists that their disastrous run of electoral setbacks was about to end were dashed as the SNP’s John Mason achieved the enormous 22 per cent swing required to topple the long-time stronghold. Mr Mason, a Glasgow councillor, overturned a 13,507 Labour majority at the general election in 2005 to win by 365 votes from Labour’s Margaret Curran. Turnout was just over 42 per cent. Earlier in the day, Labour had requested a recount,...

GORDON Brown is today facing disaster after the SNP celebrated a stunning victory in the Glasgow East by-election. Nats candidate John Mason achieved a massive swing to take the once rock-solid Labour seat. He got 11,277 votes to Labour candidate Margaret Curran’s 10,912. It was a majority of just 365 – but represented the “political earthquake” SNP leader Alex Salmond had predicted. It was the biggest upset in Labour’s Scottish heartlands since the loss of Glasgow Govan in 1988. In his victory speech, Mason said his party had “removed the dead hand of Labour control”. And he boasted that Labour...

GLASGOW (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Labour Party lost a parliamentary seat in one of its traditional strongholds, a stinging electoral setback for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, results showed on Friday. Defeat in Thursday's poll in the Glasgow East constituency, which Labour won with a huge 13,500 majority at the 2005 election, will fuel Labour discontent with Brown's leadership and could lead to moves to oust him, some analysts believe. The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) scored a dramatic victory by a slim 365-vote margin as voters in Britain's third-largest city turned against Labour in droves. The result, following a series...

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A protester who wanted his message to stick managed to superglue himself to the British prime minister Tuesday evening. Dan Glass, right, takes hold of the British PM's right arm just before he was about to receive his award. Dan Glass was at 10 Downing Street to receive a charity's award for his work on transportation issues when he staged the unusual protest. Just before Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented him with the award, Glass squirted superglue in the palm of his left hand. He shook Brown's right hand and then grabbed the prime minister's sleeve....

LONDON (AFP) - A climate change protester unsuccessfully tried to superglue himself to Prime Minister Gordon Brown at an event in the leader's residence, a government spokesman said Tuesday. Dan Glass, a 24-year-old member of Plane Stupid, which campaigns against airport expansion, tried to attach himself to Brown's suit as he was about to shake hands with the premier at his Downing Street residence. --snip-- Brown can be heard laughing as Glass began his demonstration, in an audio recording of the protest. Glass assured the prime minister he was carrying out a "non-violent protest" and told Brown that "we cannot...

As Gordon Brown, the first British prime minister ever to address the Knesset, told our parliamentarians on Monday, his father was a lifelong friend of Israel who chaired the Church of Scotland's Israel Committee, visited at least twice a year and learned Hebrew. Evidently, he didn't teach his son. Brown admirably attempted, in Hebrew, to utter a phrase of greeting at the start of his speech and to quote Herzl's "If you will it, it is no dream" at the end - but rather mangled both. Indeed, his pronunciations were notable on several occasions, including an "Auschwitz" rendered as "Ouchwhich."...

Gordon Brown to condemn Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Gordon Brown will pledge "unbreakable" support to Israel while launching his strongest attack yet on Iran. The Prime Minister will send a tough message to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, warning of imminent sanctions on oil and gas if he does not abandon his nuclear ambitions. In a landmark speech to the Israeli parliament, Mr Brown will say that Mr Ahmadinejad's denial of Israel's right to exist is "totally abhorrent". The European Union has already said it stands ready to push for a block on foreign investment in new Iranian...

Gordon Brown aide a victim of honeytrap operation by Chinese agents David Leppard and Claire Newell A top aide to Gordon Brown has been a suspected victim of a “honeytrap” operation by Chinese intelligence agents. The aide, a senior Downing Street adviser who was with the prime minister on a trip to China earlier this year, had his BlackBerry phone stolen after being picked up by a Chinese woman who had approached him in a Shanghai hotel disco. The aide agreed to return to his hotel with the woman. He reported the BlackBerry missing the next morning. The aide, whose...

Gordon Brown’s rule book goes into dustbin of history Economic Outlook: David Smith ON my bookshelf there is a tome I have been meaning to dip back into for some time. It is called Reforming Britain’s Economic and Financial Policy. Written by Ed Balls, then Treasury chief economic adviser, now in charge of what used to be the education department, and Gus O’Donnell, then head of the government’s economic service, now head of the civil service, it was intended to be the bible of new Labour macroeconomic policy. The foreword was by Gordon Brown, who was inspired by his own...

BRITAIN’S soft justice system hit a new low yesterday with plans to scrap prison sentences for burglars. Hundreds of thousands of crooks could escape jail every year under the proposals by advisers to the Lord Chief Justice. Those sentenced to short, sharp shock jail terms of less than 12 months for “less serious offences” – including burglary – should be handed community penalties instead, Even those who are likely to reoffend could walk free from court if it is believed they will go on to commit “non-serious offences”. And in a further blow, while courts must not be swayed by...

Gordon Brown said the attacks were "shocking and tragic" as he also promised the first ever "cross-government youth crime plan" would be published later next week. A teenager was among four victims of separate fatal stabbings which took place in London over the past day, as a fifth man fights for life.

Gordon Brown called for prudence in the kitchen last night, telling us not to throw away so much food. With prices soaring, he suggested we could save up to £8 a week by making our shopping go further. Waste could be reduced by simple steps such as storing fruit and vegetables in the fridge to make them last longer. While the Prime Minister was preoccupied with his household management tips, a joint report by the U.S. government and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was warning world food prices will rise by an average of 5 per cent this...

Labour is no longer the party trusted to bring in the health reforms that are need to safeguard the NHS for future generations... Barely one in five people believe the Labour party will deliver a better health service over the next ten years... It comes on the day Gordon Brown is to publish Lord Darzi's package of reforms to overhaul the way the NHS is run. The Prime Minister hopes the comprehensive review will transform Labour's fortunes and restore the party's reputation as guardians of the NHS on its 60th anniversary. After years of above-inflation increases in health spending, most...

Good Saturday morning. Senator Obama will call on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown next month during a European swing that includes stops in London, France and Germany, reports Toby Harnden of The (London) Daily Telegraph. Harnden forecasts “Obamamania”: “A recent Telegraph poll showed that Mr Obama is overwhelmingly preferred to Mr McCain in Britain and Europe. … But Democratic strategists are concerned that scenes of ‘Obamamania’ in Europe could damage the candidate back home.”

Cameron hails by-election victory   Conservative leader David Cameron has hailed an "excellent result" in the Henley by-election, which saw Labour beaten into fifth place.Mr Cameron said his party's win showed people were starting to think of the Tories as an alternative government. But Gordon Brown - speaking a year after he became PM - said "by-elections come and by-elections go". Labour lost its deposit with just 1,066 votes - fewer than the BNP, Greens, Lib Dems and Tory victor John Howell. Mr Howell took the seat with 19,796 votes - a majority of 10,116 to the Lib Dem...

Almost two thirds of people now think Gordon Brown is a "liability," compared to only one in four people a year ago when he took over as Prime Minister. A year ago Mr Brown took over from Tony Blair but there has since been an almost total reversal in the fortunes of Labour and the Conservatives. A year ago when people were asked "who do you think will win the next election," 62 per cent said Labour and only 18 per cent said the Tories. But when asked the question now, today's poll reveals only 16 per cent think Labour...

Just two days before Gordon Brown marks a year since he took over as Prime Minister the gloomy survey also finds that only one in four people believe he has a chance of winning the next election. The ICM/Guardian poll put Labour on 25 per cent, down two points on last month. That is the lowest since ICM began polling in 1984. The Conservatives are on 45 per cent, their highest rating since 1988. The poll showed that 74 per cent of people think Mr Brown has been a change for the worse compared with Tony Blair. Only 24 per...

Gordon Brown will today blame Margaret Thatcher for Britain's low rates of social mobility and accuse the former Conservative Prime Minister of creating a lost generation by "denying many children the chance to progress". The keynote speech coincides with the unveiling of plans to pay poorer parents for signing up their children to state health and education schemes. The Prime Minister will say that the economic policies of Conservative governments in the 1980s meant Britain has become a harder place for poor people to get ahead. He will also call on Britons to improve their work ethic and "aim high"...

Britain has become the 19th European Union country to ratify the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum, after the EU Amendment Bill completed its passage through Parliament. A last-ditch Conservative attempt to delay ratification until the autumn was voted down in the House of Lords by a margin of 93, and peers later gave the Bill its third reading without a vote. Eurosceptic members of the European Parliament display posters calling on the EU to respect the outcome of Ireland's recent vote Royal Assent is expected to follow within 24 hours. Parliamentary ratification came on the eve of an EU summit...

The President and First Lady continued their visit to United Kingdom today spending part of the day in London and then travelling to Northern Ireland before departing for Washington. There were some serious meetings where the Presdent was assure that Britain would continue their support and in fact would increase troops in Afganistan. The relationship between Gordon Brown and the President seemed more relaxed than at any of their previous meeting. On a lighter level the President and First Lady visited an integrated primary school in Belfast and the First Lady also visited the British Museum earlier in the day...

Gordon Brown is under intense pressure to declare the Lisbon Treaty dead after Irish voters delivered an overwhelming vote against the European Union's drive toward greater integration. In the only popular vote on the treaty to be held in the EU, 53.4 per cent of the Irish electorate rejected its terms – plunging the EU's plans to create a new European president and foreign minister into turmoil. MPs and campaigners from across the political spectrum called on the Prime Minister to halt moves towards British ratification of the text in the wake of the vote, with David Cameron saying the...

Gordon Brown says world 'cannot afford to fail' on food crisis By Tom Peterkin Last Updated: 11:54PM BST 03/06/2008 Gordon Brown warned that the world "cannot afford to fail" to deal with the global food crisis, which is resulting in 9,000 under-fives starving to death each day. Speaking as heads of state prepared to meet for a United Nations summit on soaring food prices, the Prime Minister said it was vital to increase food production in the world's poorest countries. "The fact that food prices have reached record levels can only worsen these already devastating figures," Mr Brown said in...

The idea that the state is the only repository of civic virtue and moral authority has come to a dead end Question one: what happens when you leave rubbish outside people's homes for two weeks? The planet stops overheating and life on earth is saved? Nope. But you do get lots of well-fed rats and flies happily paddling around the households of suburban Britain. Apparently, the Government has been sitting on research which made the startling discovery that failing to empty rubbish bins every week produces a rise in disease-carrying rodents and insects. Who, one wonders, actually commissioned this project?...

Gordon Brown has been accused of attempting to bribe voters as new research shows that billions of pounds of public money is being diverted from rural areas to traditional Labour heartlands. Official figures show that vast sums have been shifted from Tory-leaning country shires and transferred to Labour-supporting towns and cities over the past decade. Councils in London are now receiving twice as much per head of population from central government as their rural counterparts, according to statistics from the independent House of Commons Library. The government funding gap between urban and rural areas has grown dramatically since Labour came...

Mr Bush wrote that the July 7-9 summit of the Group of Eight major industrial powers, to be held in Japan, needed to take concrete action to tackle AIDS and other scourges afflicting Africa. "My message to my fellow leaders will be that our past promises are just empty words unless we provide meaningful follow-through," Mr Bush wrote. "And if we do, we can continue to help save lives and spread hope across the continent of Africa." Mr Bush said the US was doubling aid to Africa by 2010 and highlighted a $US15 billion ($A15.7 billion) AIDS relief fund launched...

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party has registered its worst opinion poll showing since surveys began in 1943, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday. It said the YouGov poll showed Labour on 23 percent against 47 percent for the opposition Conservatives, underlining voter concerns about a slowing economy, rising fuel and food prices and a botched tax reform that have battered Brown's popularity. Last week, Labour lost a mid-term parliamentary seat to the Conservatives for the first time since 1978, the year before Margaret Thatcher defeated Labour to sweep to office. Coming after a drubbing in local elections earlier...

CREWE, England: Voters in this old railway town in Britain's industrial Midlands sent a powerful message to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the governing Labor Party on Thursday, electing a Conservative candidate by a wide margin in a parliamentary constituency that had been a Labor bastion for decades. Overturning a Labor majority that had been more than 7,000 votes at the general election in 2005, the Conservative candidate, Edward Timpson, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Labor candidate, Tamsin Dunwoody. In the results of the by-election, which were announced in the early hours of Friday, the Conservative majority over Labor...

LONDON - Britain's Conservative Party won a special election that was viewed as a barometer of Labour Party leader Gordon Brown's popularity, according to vote results Friday. Tory candidate Edward Timpson handily defeated his left-wing competitor Tamsin Dunwoody to take the parliamentary seat of Crewe and Nantwich in northwestern England, beating her 20,539 votes to 12,679. The loss in a Labour stronghold could help to erode Brown's authority and embolden his critics within the party. The party had held the district since 1983. Brown is struggling to recover from devastating Labour Party setbacks in local elections earlier this month and...

Millenia of moral, religious and scientific belief were defied last night by MPs who voted to allow the creation of human/animal embryos. In a landmark move which isolates Britain in the western world, they backed Government proposals which herald the dawn of a new era of experimentation. Despite fierce objections, politicians placed the need for greater medical understanding above the dangers of tinkering with the essence of life - even though many leading scientists argue that hybrid embryos are unlikely to bring promised cures. Opponents warned that the decision had made Britain a 'rogue state' and pointed to 21 other...

Gordon Brown backs animal-human hybrids By Subhajit Banerjee and agencies Last Updated: 2:31PM BST 18/05/2008   Gordon Brown today strongly defended the medical use of animal-human hybrid embryos, ahead of a key Commons vote on the issue. The Prime Minister said that stem cell research was an "inherently moral endeavour" and a "profound opportunity" to save and transform millions of lives. "Britain is at the forefront of this research and responsible for much of the worldwide progress," he wrote in The Observer newspaper. The premier supports scientists who want to insert the nuclei of human cells into animal eggs,...

The fact that you already have several holes in your head doesn't mean you want another one. Imagine being Gordon Brown this weekend. You are still reeling from disastrous local election results and the loss of London to Boris Johnson. You trail a record 26 points behind David Cameron in the polls. Rebellion surges through your party's ranks: in Westminster, over the abolition of the 10p tax rate; in Scotland, over the proposed referendum on independence. Senior Labour figures say that there will be trouble - meaning a leadership challenge - if the party does not make serious progress by...

Silvio Berlusconi's re-election as Italy's Prime Minister is more promising and more important for Italy and the United States, and for trans-Atlantic relations generally, than most commentators have admitted. Although the Bush Administration has just nine months left in office, significant progress is both possible and desirable in enhancing ties between America and Europe. President Bush's critics have been quick to assign him blame for weakened trans-Atlantic relations, particularly because of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. They argue that public opinion polls show European popular sentiments turning against the United States. They gloat that two of Bush's staunchest personal and...

Gordon Brown says it has been a "bad and disappointing" election for Labour, as the party suffers its worst council results in at least 40 years. BBC research suggests Labour won 24% of votes cast in England and Wales, behind the Tories on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%. So far Labour has lost 310 councillors and key councils like Reading. Tory gains include Bury and North Tyneside. Mr Brown insists his party will learn lessons. David Cameron called it a "big moment" for the Conservative Party. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said his party had "regained momentum" by gaining...

The Labor Party was headed for a third-place finish in local elections in Britain in early results Friday morning. The big winner was the Conservative Party, The Telegraph reported. The party's campaign headquarters said it expected to top its goal of picking up 200 seats on local councils. The big loser was Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the newspaper said. The local elections were his first big test with voters since he succeeded Prime Minister Tony Blair last year. "Gordon Brown has had his 'Life on Mars' moment," a Conservative spokesman said. "He went to sleep in 2008 and today he's...

Election latest: David Cameron inflicts worst drubbing in 40 years The Conservatives made sweeping gains across the country early today as voters gave Gordon Brown a huge rebuff in his first electoral test as Prime Minister. David Cameron chalked up important successes in the North, the Midlands and the South, securing his top target of Bury in Greater Manchester and taking control of Nuneaton and Bedworth, and Southampton. The Conservatives also took seats in Labour strongholds of Sunderland and Wigan. Labour suffered one of its worst electoral humiliations, with its national share of the vote dropping to 24 or 25...

Gordon Brown faces the first electoral test of his premiership today, with Labour chiefs braced for the party’s worst showing at the polls in a generation. Ministers fear the loss of London and scores of council seats across the country as voters cast the first ballots since Mr Brown was anointed Prime Minister and ducked an early general election. Labour strategists fear that the party could record its lowest share of the vote in local elections since the 1970s, falling as low as 25 per cent and finishing third behind the Tories and Liberal Democrats - a humiliation for Mr...

Diplomacy: Democrats have hammered the Bush administration for supposedly losing allies and global standing. But a look at U.S. ties shows Bush to be a master diplomat who is strengthening U.S. relations all over."The world owes President Bush a debt of gratitude in leading the world in our determination to root out terrorism," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a man whose recent elevation to office was supposed to denote a "cooling" of relations with the U.S. and a tilt toward Europe. But Europe isn't really "cooling," either. France is now led by a man elected as "le Americain." Like...

The President met with British Prime minister George Brown today at the White House. The President and the First Lady participated in an award ceremony for the recipients of the President's Environmental Youth Awards. This evening The President and the First lady are entertaining the Brown's at the White House earlier in the day Sarah Brown and Laura Bush participated in a tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Honor of Your Company Is Requested: President Lincoln's Inaugural Ball" Exhibit.. Pray for President Bush -- Day 2772 Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Public Opinion: Most global surveys on image spotlight negative views of the U.S. But a new poll of U.S. perceptions of Britain shows a plunge. Since it's the U.K.'s turn under this microscope, we'll venture some reasons.First, it's no pleasure to see U.S. perceptions fall so precipitously for our oldest and closest ally — the one with whom we went through two World Wars and the Cold War, and in each simultaneously elected great leaders who rose to the occasion. But from a BBC World Service poll of 1,000 Americans, it's clear U.S. views of Britain have fallen sharply. The...

Gordon Brown is to consider abolishing the Act that prevents Roman Catholics marrying into the Royal Family or becoming king or queen, in a move that could lead to the disestablishment of the Church of England. The Government signalled that it would look at abolishing the 307-year-old Act of Settlement because it is "antiquated" and discriminates against a section of society. The commitment came during a Commons debate on proposed constitutional reforms, which would also require the Prime Minister to secure MPs' approval for war. Under the 1701 Act, monarchs are forbidden to become or marry Catholics. Traditionally governments have...

London - You might want to take that vacation in England just as soon as you can – before its 1,000-year run as a sovereign nation comes to an end. This winter, 27 nations of the European Union (EU) signed the Treaty of Lisbon. You may think, "Innocuous enough," as Portuguese-inspired visions of the Tagus River and chicken piri-piri swirl before your eyes. But for England (Britain, actually) the Treaty of Lisbon isn't that appetizing. That's because, if ratified, it will become the decisive act in this creation of a federal European superstate with its capital in Brussels. Britain would...

LONDON - Support for the Labour Party slumped to a 25-year low on Sunday with voters disillusioned over Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the economy against a backdrop of worldwide financial turmoil. Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron, gearing up for an important test of voter support in local council elections, was the main beneficiary -- but his party warned that it had little room to manoeuvre over any possible tax cuts. A national election does not have to be held until 2010, but the next major test for Cameron and Brown comes in local council elections in May. After...

Embracing Earth Charter key to environmental salvation Author and U of A professor Colin Soskolne says humans need to smarten up. March 7, 2008 - Edmonton -- Human beings, laments Colin Soskolne, are a "seriously dumb species." Just what kind of defect drives us to destroy the very ecosystems that provide us with sustenance? Why do we turn away from mounting, irrefutable evidence that we are sabotaging our very existence?Such questions are asked in a new collection of essays, called Sustaining Life on Earth: Environmental and Human Health through Global Governance, edited by Soskolne, on the environment and human health."Our...

The scale of the "new Cold War" between Britain and Russia was laid bare last night when it was revealed that Gordon Brown has not had a single conversation with President Vladimir Putin since his first day in Downing Street. The Foreign Office is said to be alarmed at the lack of contact between the two leaders, which has fallen to levels last seen in the pre-glasnost era of Margaret Thatcher and Leonid Brezhnev. Diplomatic sources say that the first – and last – direct contact between the men was on June 27 last year, when the Russian leader rang...