The results of the European Parliamentary elections are due just after 9pm this evening, (10pm CET). In the UK, it is expected to be a make or break night for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who faces the prospect of his Labour Party possibly finishing in fourth place.
Gordon Brown reshuffled his cabinet yesterday, desperately clinging to power, after another day of resignations and turmoil in westminster, coupled with the worst performance by Labour in the English local elections in modern history. All seemed lost for Brown on Thursday night, when minutes before the polls closed, James Purnell sensationally quit the cabinet, but the reshuffle seems, for now, to have saved his political career. The Prime Minister however, admitted that Labour had suffered "a painful defeat" in the local elections, when he announced his reshuffle.
As Brown delivered his press conference from within number 10, the Europe Minister Caroline Flint announced her resignation from the government, launching a savage attack on the Prime Minister, saying in a letter to him; "Several of the women attending Cabinet - Myself Included - have been treated by you as little more than female window dressing". She also accused him of running a "two tier cabinet". Brown, when questioned in his conference, announced that Glenys Kinnock, the wife of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, herself a former MEP, will be appointed to the House of Lords in order to take up the post of Europe minister.
What has become clear now is that Brown's position is considerably diminished, however he somehow finds himself in a slightly better position than that of only 48 hours ago. The only potential cabinet challenger to the leadership was Alan Johnson, who has now been shoved into the Poison Challace of the Home Office, recently vacated by Jacqui Smith.
The other interesting moves to come out of the reshuffle is the use of peers in the cabinet, suggesting that there are no qualified elected members of Parliament left to serve, or probably more likely, willing to serve, in a Brown administration. Lord Mandleson is now effectively the Deputy Prime Minister having been given the title of First Secretary, which pretty much for all intents and purposes translates to deputy prime minister, and the slightly surreal appointment of Sir Alan Sugar to the House of Lords in order to take up the role of Enterprise Tsar.
Labour will also now face a difficult By-Election following the resignation of Ian Gibson, who is already barred by the party from standing in his Norwich constituency following his part in the expenses scandal, which looking at the results from the local elections, the 6% swing to the Conservatives required for them to take the seat, isn't an impossibility.
In the local elections, Labour were all but destroyed, and now control no councils in the UK, losing over 300 seats in the process. David Cameron's conservatives faired much better, gaining most of the ground from Labour, and now controlling the majority of local goverment, with the exception of a few councils which are Lib Dem controlled and a handful of others which are in No Overall Control.
Things don't get any better for the troubled Prime Minister this weekend, with a slating across the board in this mornings newspapers, and the widely anticipated battering in the European Elections, the results of which are expected on Sunday night. Then on Monday, the Parliamentary Labour Party meet to discuss the on-going crisis. And if things couldn't get any worse, the minority parties are planning a vote of no confidence in the Government in Parliament on Wednesday, a vote which the Conservatives will almost certainly support, and which, with growing animosity on the labour backbenches, could garner enough votes from Gordon Browns own party to topple the Government and force a General Election.
There is an interesting alternative viewpoint developing however, with Labour Backbenchers less inclined to remove Gordon Brown and force a General Election fearing that they will lose their own seats to a wholesale Conservative landslide, and from the tory point of view, they'd much rather face Gordon Brown in a General Election when victory would be almost assured, compared to a stronger figure leading the Labour party such as Alan Johnson or David Miliband.
Whatever happens, the next seven days in Westminster promise to be as interesting as the last seven days, and of course, there is still the little matter of MP's Expenses, which the Telegraph promises, it isn't finished with yet.
With most of the wards now counted in Bristol's local election, the Liberal Democrats have picked up the four seats required to take control of the council from No Overall Control. The Conservatives have also picked up several wards from Labour which signals the start of a bad set of results for the party currently in Government. The count is also underway in Lincolnshire where the Conservatives are making early gains and where the Labour vote is also down by around 20%.
On the day of the local council elections in England and European elections across the UK, James Purnell, the Work and Pensions minister in the Brown Cabinet has resigned, adding that he thinks Gordon Brown should step down as Labour leader and as Prime Minister, piling further pressure on him along with what is expected to be the worst set of election results for the party in decades. Below is the text of the letter that Mr Purnell sent to Downing Street;
Dear Gordon,
We both love the Labour Party. I have worked for it for twenty years and you for far longer. We know we owe it everything and it owes us nothing.
I owe it to our Party to say what I believe no matter how hard that may be. I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely.
That would be disastrous for our country. This moment calls for stronger regulation, an active state, better public services, an open democracy. It calls for a Government that measures itself by how it treats the poorest in society. Those are our values, not David Cameron's.
We therefore owe it to our country to give it a real choice. We need to show that we are prepared to fight to be a credible Government and have the courage to offer an alternative future.
I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our Party a fighting chance of winning. As such I am resigning from Government.
The Party was here long before us, and we want it to be here long after we have gone. We must do the right thing by it.
I am not seeking the leadership, nor acting with anyone else. My actions are my own considered view, nothing more. If the consensus is that you should continue, then I will support the government loyally from the backbenches. But I do believe that this question now needs to be put.
The United Kingdom Independence Party has lodged a formal complaint with the Electoral Commission and is planning a legal challenge to the outcome of the European Elections taking place today because of how the ballot papers are folded at the polling stations. The Commission have warned Polling Stations of a potentioal problem with the way the ballot papers are folded, thus making it difficult to see the UKIP candidate on the page, and has been advising the stations to hand the ballot papers to the electorate unfolded.
UKIP's Godfrey Bloom told Sky News; "If this problem is as big as we think it is - we will be demanding a re-run of the entire process. This is a sign of the country we now live in. This is a complete shambles and makes a mockery of a democratic process that is hundreds of years old. Even people who have been going in to the polling stations intending to vote for us have not been able to find UKIP on the list because the paper is razor-folded along the bottom edge."
Three results from the English local elections are expected overnight, and then the bulk of the results are expected at lunchtime tomorrow, with the European Election results coming on Sunday evening.
Today, the people of the UK go to the polls in the European elections and the English local authority and unitary authority elections. The whole country is up for grabs in Europe, whilst 27 county councils, 7 unitary councils and three mayoral races are all in contention across England. With polling stations open between 07:00 and 22:00, it isn't expected that the first results from the local elections will be announced until around 10:00 tomorrow morning, whilst the European results are due sometime after 21:00 on Sunday evening, after the rest of the European Union have cast their votes.
It is expected that the British Public will use this opportunity to reflect on the leadership of Gordon Brown, and also the Expenses Scandal, dealing what could be a fatal blow to the Prime Minister who is already struggling to keep his grip on power, particularly after yesterdays unprecedented events in Westminster and the news that an email is being circulated demanding that the PM resigns.
It's not looking good this morning for Chancellor Alsitair Darling, who reportedly claimed expenses on two properties at the same time according to the Telegraph newspaper in todays edition. This comes after a weekend of pressure from the Lib Dems, whose leader Nick Clegg and economics minister Vince Cable both called for him to be sacked. The Whitehall media are also reporting that in a cabinet reshuffle after the Euro and local elections this week, Prime Minister Brown, himself under growing pressure, will replace Darling at the Treasury with Ed Balls, the current Education minister.
In an interview, Vince Cable said; "Here is the company finance director caught with his fingers in the till. He doesn't explain. He doesn't apologise. He just blames his colleagues for not stopping him. His moral authority has vanished. He must go, now. We need a Chancellor focusing on the national accounts rather than his own."
It seems amazing that it comes down to the expenses scandal to potentially topple this useless chancellor, and not his embarrassing budget a few months ago, and the severe recession, and record levels of borrowing that the taxpayer will burden for decades... This guy should have been fired long ago.
The Sunday Telegraph will publish yet more revelations in their ongoing investigation into expenses abuses in Westminster. Conservative David Mundell, the shadow Scottish secretary is reported to have claimed more than £3,000 for cameras, photographers, and photo editing software, with which he has published more than 700 pictures on his website of him in various poses around his Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale constituency. He also claimed for charges levied by a photographer who invoiced the MP after using pictures which he had no authorisation to use. The Telegraph also reveal that Mr Mundell rated at; "587th place for 2007/08 based on his contribution in parliament as he attended 47 per cent of votes, spoke in only 11 debates and submitted just 16 written questions in the year while claiming £169,187 in total expenses."
The other expenses revelations today include;
Labour Backbencher Roger Godsiff claiming for a bath mat, gardening equipment and more than £7,000 of repairs through office expenses, after already claiming the maximum abount allowed under the second home allowance.
Conservative MP Bob Walter claimed more than £1,000 for handmade carpets that he bought during a trip to India. The claim was part of £85,000 of claims on his second home allowance for his home in Dorset after flipping the designation from his London property.
Former Conservative minister Tim Yeo claimed £900 in the lead up to Christmas for a pink laptop computer.
Former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy claimed for three boxes of mints and two teddy bears which he bought from the House of Commons gift shop.
Labour MP Frank Cook, who represents the constituency of Stockton-on-Tees is one of the latest MP's to become embroiled in the expenses scandal after it emerged that he attempted to claim back a £5 donation to a church following a Battle of Britain memorial service as an office expense. In interviews immediately after the revelations on Sky News and the BBC, Mr Cook said that he couldn't recall the claim, although he did apologise for it. That is in stark contrast to what the Telegraph has said, which notes that a handwritten note which was attached to the claim said; "Battle of Britain church service, Sunday 17.09.06. £5 contribution to offertory on behalf of Frank Cook MP." The Fees Office rejected the claim.
But I ask myself, as I read this lastest revelation, and some of the others that are set to be disclosed, I can't help but think that these people really are just a complete joke. To have the audacity to claim on expenses for a donation to charity for such a princely sum as £5 deserves instant dismissal. The fact that Frank Cook MP is an official supporter of the campaign to commemorate Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, a commender of 11 Group Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, just makes this whole latest episode so hard to swallow, and quite disturbing to read.
Frank Cook, you need to resign now, and not hang on until the next election for your golden goodbye.
The Sunday Telegraph has commissioned an ICM opinion poll asking firstly who voters would go for if they were to vote in a general election now, and secondly, who they would vote for on Thursday's European elections. In the first poll, Labour languished in third place on just 22 percent, behind the Lib Dems on 25 percent with the Conservatives heading for a landslide win on 40 percent. In the second poll on the European Elections, again Labour are in third place on just 17 percent, with the Green Party and the BNP not far behind them. The conservatives lead on 29 percent with the Lib Dems in second on 20 percent.
The figures are certainly partially due to the expenses scandal, but since the Conservatives continue to do well in the polls, even though they have suffered their fair share of dodgy claims, the poll numbers seem to be a direct reaction by the public to Gordon Brown's leadership.
The United Kingdom Independence Party has lodged a formal complaint with the Electoral Commission and is planning a legal challenge to the outcome of the European Elections taking place today because of how the ballot papers are folded at the polling stations. The Commission have warned Polling Stations of a potentioal problem with the way the ballot papers are folded, thus making it difficult to see the UKIP candidate on the page, and has been advising the stations to hand the ballot papers to the electorate unfolded.
It's not looking good this morning for Chancellor Alsitair Darling, who reportedly claimed expenses on two properties at the same time according to the Telegraph newspaper in todays edition. This comes after a weekend of pressure from the Lib Dems, whose leader Nick Clegg and economics minister Vince Cable both called for him to be sacked. The Whitehall media are also reporting that in a cabinet reshuffle after the Euro and local elections this week, Prime Minister Brown, himself under growing pressure, will replace Darling at the Treasury with Ed Balls, the current Education minister.
The Sunday Telegraph will publish yet more revelations in their ongoing investigation into expenses abuses in Westminster. Conservative David Mundell, the shadow Scottish secretary is reported to have claimed more than £3,000 for cameras, photographers, and photo editing software, with which he has published more than 700 pictures on his website of him in various poses around his Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale constituency. He also claimed for charges levied by a photographer who invoiced the MP after using pictures which he had no authorisation to use. The Telegraph also reveal that Mr Mundell rated at; "587th place for 2007/08 based on his contribution in parliament as he attended 47 per cent of votes, spoke in only 11 debates and submitted just 16 written questions in the year while claiming £169,187 in total expenses."
Labour MP Frank Cook, who represents the constituency of Stockton-on-Tees is one of the latest MP's to become embroiled in the expenses scandal after it emerged that he attempted to claim back a £5 donation to a church following a Battle of Britain memorial service as an office expense. In interviews immediately after the revelations on Sky News and the BBC, Mr Cook said that he couldn't recall the claim, although he did apologise for it. That is in stark contrast to what the Telegraph has said, which notes that a handwritten note which was attached to the claim said; "Battle of Britain church service, Sunday 17.09.06. £5 contribution to offertory on behalf of Frank Cook MP." The Fees Office rejected the claim.
