Brown losing command, says Cameron
Gordon Brown has been accused of losing command of his Cabinet after Communities Secretary Hazel Blears became the fourth minister to quit the Government in the space of two days.
In a stormy session of Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, David Cameron told Mr Brown that her resignation on the eve of crucial European and local elections was "a direct challenge to his authority".
And Mr Brown was forced to duck two challenges from the Conservative leader to say whether Chancellor Alistair Darling - widely tipped for the chop in a reshuffle expected within days - would still be in his job in a week's time.
Ms Blears announced her resignation in a statement, issued less than two hours before PMQs, which pointedly failed to pay tribute to the Prime Minister or any of his policies. The Salford MP had come under growing pressure over her parliamentary expenses, despite paying back more than £13,000 to HM Revenue and Customs.
Her relations with Mr Brown, already damaged by a press article in which she appeared to mock his YouTube video, had been poisoned further by the PM's description of her failure to pay capital gains tax on the sale of a property on which she had claimed parliamentary second home allowances as "totally unacceptable".
Shortly after her resignation, she faced a fresh claim on the Daily Telegraph website that her decision to go was partly triggered by the Cabinet Office uncovering another property sale on which she had allegedly avoided paying the tax.
Stating her wish to return to grassroots activism, Ms Blears said she wanted to "help the Labour Party to reconnect with the British people" - a comment which will be widely interpreted as suggesting that the Brown administration has lost touch with voters.
Mr Cameron said Britain now had "a dysfunctional Cabinet, a dysfunctional Government, led by a Prime Minister who can't give a lead" and challenged Mr Brown to call a General Election.
"He told us he had the right team to take the country forward," the Tory leader told MPs. "That team is now deserting him. The Government is collapsing before our eyes. Why doesn't he take the one act of authority that is left to him - get down to the Palace, ask for a dissolution, call that election?"
Mr Brown sought to brush off the attacks, insisting that MPs on all sides of the House had come under "tremendous pressure" as a result of the disclosures about their expenses claims. While declining to confirm whether Mr Darling would lose his job in the coming reshuffle, he said: "This Chancellor is leading the rest of the world in taking us out of recession. This Chancellor has taken action the Conservative Party refused to support."
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