CIVIL WAR IN LABOUR PARTY (Scarborough and Whitby Liberal Democrats)

Scarborough and Whitby Liberal Democrats <info@scarboroughandwhitbylibdems.org.uk>

CIVIL WAR IN LABOUR PARTY

September 8, 2006 10:36 AM

The Labour Party erupted into civil war this week as seven members of the Government quit their posts today over Tony Blair's refusal to name a date for his resignation as Labour leader. Junior minister Tom Watson and six parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs) are among 17 normally loyal Labour MPs who have signed a letter calling on Mr Blair to quit. The Sun newspaper said that Mr Blair will go on 31 May, but Number 10 has insisted it had not leaked the date.

Responding to revelations in The Sun newspaper Sir Menzies Campbell's chief of Staff, Norman Lamb MP said: "With every hour that passes the Prime Minister's political life expectancy reduces by months. It is not acceptable for the apparatus of Government to be paralysed by the internal politics of the Labour party".