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Blow for Brown as second cabinet minister quits

A second British cabinet minister announced she was resigning on Wednesday, draining Prime Minister Gordon Brown's authority over a government battered by scandal and economic recession.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 23:36 June 3, 2009
  • Gulf News

London: A second British cabinet minister announced she was resigning on Wednesday, draining Prime Minister Gordon Brown's authority over a government battered by scandal and economic recession.

News that Communities Secretary Hazel Blears would quit, on the eve of European and local elections in which Brown's government faces a rout, adds to speculation about Brown's own future with a general election due within a year.

"Today I have told the prime minister that I am resigning from the government," Blears, who is responsible for local government affairs, said in a statement.

Saying she wanted to focus on her Manchester constituency in northern England, she said: "Most of all I want to help the Labour party to reconnect with the British people." Her announcement pre-empted a Cabinet reshuffle expected as early as tomorrow and stole the initiative from Brown.

"There is... a clear sense of senior ministers getting ahead of Gordon Brown removing them. It's clearly an effort for them to keep the initiative and go on their own terms," said Tony Travers, politics professor at London School of Economics.

"That means that they are uninterested in Gordon Brown and the appearance of Gordon Brown's government, they are doing this for their own sake."

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