Labour MP Urges Brown Resignation

Demands are growing for PM Gordon Brown to resign - even from within the Labour party's owns ranks.

Labour MP Gordon Prentice says the Prime Minister lacked the skill to "persuade and enthuse" and should go in the party's "best interests".

Mr Brown is still reeling under Labour's humiliating defeat in the Glasgow East by-election.

Labour suffered the loss of its 13,507 majority to the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP).

Unions have benefited already from Mr Brown's weakened position by securing a series of concessions – one being an extension of the minimum wage.

But, business leaders have warned that changes to the minimum wage could cost firms an extra £88 million a year.

However, Labour Party Chairman Tony Lloyd has backed the Prime Minster and said Mr Prentice's views did not reflect the views of most Labour MPs.

Mr Lloyd told the BBC that the "widespread" view among Labour MPs was not that Mr Brown should go but that "there was a need for a sharper focus" for the Prime Minister to "get across what he's all about".

However, Mr Prentice, MP for Pendle said "a prime minister needs a different set of skills from a chancellor of the exchequer".

"A prime minister must be able to communicate, persuade and enthuse. If not, the message is lost," he said.

Mr Pendle has told the BBC that he wanted to see a leadership election as there as not been one for over 10 years.

"It's no wonder we are a bit rusty," he added.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is standing by Mr Brown too and has said that "he's proved himself to be a strong prime minister and quite rightly, as he said over the weekend, he's getting on with the job".

Labour's Deputy Leader Harriet Harman told GMTV that she did not think that the Prime Minister would have to resign.

"I think Gordon Brown, more than anybody, had done more over the last 10 years to make people better off," she said.

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has demanded an end to "pointless" manoeuvring against Mr Brown and has insisted that no other minister was "anywhere near capable" of taking over at Downing Street.

But, bookies Ladbrokes says that there has been "frantic betting" and that the odds of Justice Secretary Jack Straw being the next leader have been cut from 6/1 to 4/1.

The favourite to take the position is Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

See: SNP Win Labour 'Safe Seat' In By-Election Victory

(DS)