Financial Crisis Inhibits Effort To Oust Brown

MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 22 -- Concern over the global financial crisis has largely halted efforts by disgruntled members of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labor Party to oust the unpopular leader.

It was a message heard over and over at the start of the party's annual conference Monday: Changing leaders in such precarious financial times is a bad idea. "He is the right man for the right job at the right time," said John Prescott, former deputy prime minister, interviewed in a convention hall in this northwest English city, where thousands of party faithful are gathered this week.

Brown's approval ratings have dipped so low that many Labor politicians worry that his unpopularity will cause a landslide defeat for the party in the next election, which must be called by May 2010.

Labor is trailing the opposition Conservative Party by as much as 20 points, and in a new poll by London's Times newspaper of 1,200 members of Brown's party, 53 percent of those questioned think he is "indecisive and dithering."

But a move from within Labor ranks to force a vote to elect a new head of the party -- and therefore a new prime minister -- appears to have been halted by the economic crisis. Top party members say the public would view that as a distraction from efforts to stabilize financial markets.

Before taking over as prime minister from Tony Blair 15 months ago, Brown was chancellor of the exchequer, the finance minister. Prescott and others said his economic expertise is especially needed in these "very difficult times."

Even the man widely expected to be elected the next head of the party, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, joined in the display of unity. "I don't support a leadership election. The party needs to pull together. We need to pull together behind Gordon's leadership," he told reporters. "The public want us to be focused on what they are concerned about."

Barry Gardiner, one of the dozen Labor members of Parliament who have been publicly critical of Brown, said the show of unity at the party conference was like a family "putting on a good face" at Christmas. "Underneath it all, the family knows that there are problems, and they need to be addressed," he said.

It was unclear how much time Brown might gain. Some people privately speculated that the reprieve might last at least until the end of the year, perhaps until next summer.

The hope among party members is that given more time, Labor might reverse its drop in polls by being seen as guiding the country out of financial crisis.

Alistair Darling, Britain's finance minister, said that amid uncertain times, "the one thing I am certain about is that we have the right prime minister."

Darling used his address to the party Monday to underscore the gravity of the global financial woes. He said "extraordinary, turbulent times" have "hit every country in the world." The economic challenges are "unprecedented in decades," he said.

"Just as no government on its own can combat global terrorism or tackle climate change, so no government alone can put in place the right supervisory safeguards in this global economy," he said.

Darling and Brown have come on strong in recent days, saying that they have been ahead of other governments in urging tighter domestic and new international regulation of financial markets.

Darling noted that Britain was the first major country to ban the speculative practice of short selling -- betting that a stock's value will fall. Darling said that short selling was "not a prime cause of the present financial turmoil" but that "it has made it far worse in recent weeks by undermining confidence in financial companies."

Darling said that the first priority was to stabilize the banking system and that inaction would put "the whole world economy at risk." He said the Bank of England injected more than $180 billion to keep the banking system functioning smoothly.

He said new powers must be given to bank regulators and new protections to depositors. He also promised to send a banking reform bill to the House of Commons in two weeks.

One of the biggest rounds of applause came when Darling attacked "the bonus culture" of Britain's financial and banking sector. "Bonuses should encourage good long-term decisions, not short-term reckless ones," Darling said.