Brown to labour on in event of poll loss

London: Gordon Brown is insisting he will continue as Labour leader even if the party is defeated in the general election.

The prime minister indicated on Monday that he would refuse to quit unless the Conservatives win a significant Commons majority.

The Daily Mail revealed earlier this year that Brown was considering clinging on if David Cameron has to form a minority government in a hung parliament — in the hope that a second election will follow within months.

He is now expected to argue that Labour could ill afford the distraction of a "messy" leadership contest in such circumstances. Brown's strategy is similar to that of Edward Heath, who stayed on as the Conservative leader for a full year after his defeat in February 1974 by Labour's Harold Wilson.

It also echoes Margaret Thatcher's declaration that she would go "on and on" as prime minister following her last election victory in 1987 — only to be replaced as party leader by John Major. The prime Minister's many critics in the Labour Party — particularly those supporting foreign secretary David Miliband as the next leader — are horrified at the idea that he will seek to stay on even in the event of a defeat.

They fear the idea is part of a strategy to ease the path for his closest cabinet ally, schools secretary Ed Balls, to succeed him as leader.

As leader of the opposition, Brown would have a key influence in the shape of the shadow cabinet, which could see Balls emerge as leader-in-waiting.

Interview

Asked in an interview for Radio 4's Woman's Hour if he owed it to colleagues to make way for another leader if he fails to maintain a working majority, Brown disagreed. "I'll keep going," he insisted. After being interrupted and asked the question again, he added: "No, I'll keep going because I want a majority. I'll keep going."

The prime minister insisted he owed it to people to "continue and complete the work that we've started of taking this country out of the global financial recession".

Former minister Geoffrey Robinson, a close ally of Brown, confirmed that he would seek to remain Labour leader in a hung parliament, even if the Conservatives were the larger party, and claimed that to have reduced the huge Tory poll lead was "a very remarkable achievement".

"Look where we have come from," said Robinson. "Everybody had written him off. In a hung parliament, given that we have got another election to fight, the idea of changing leader at that point, which would mean a three-month campaign before another leader was in place, is unthinkable."

Conservative Party chairman Eric Pickles said: "We're fighting this election to stop this country suffering five more years of Gordon Brown. The prospect of him going on even longer is truly terrifying."