Brown fights to win over party doubters

Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces a major challenge in a speech to his Labour Party on Tuesday to silence critics who question his leadership.
After 11 years in power, the ruling Labour Party is lagging some 20 points behind the opposition Conservatives in opinion polls. That puts it on course for a crushing defeat at the next parliamentary election, due by mid-2010.
Brown, 57, took over from Tony Blair 15 months ago without a leadership election and lacks Blair's easy charm. Some Labour lawmakers want to replace Brown with a leader better able to win over voters fed up with Labour rule and worried about the threat of economic recession.
One member of Labour's influential executive committee told Reuters the prime minister had been given time to sort out the economic crisis but would have to go next July after European elections if he had failed to reverse poor poll ratings.
Brown, chancellor for a decade under Blair, will tell delegates at Labour's annual conference that his experience makes him the best person to guide the country through the financial turmoil sweeping the world.
But he is also expected to admit that his government had made mistakes. It had to learn from these and concentrate on winning a fourth term by helping Britons weather the economic downturn.
"A government fighting on behalf of the people will get the support of the people," said Derek Simpson, joint chief of the biggest trades union and Labour Party sponsor Unite.
"With a change of policy, not a change of leader, we can win the next election."
The economy, once the jewel in Labour's crown, has now more than lost its sparkle. Inflation is double the government's target, unemployment is rising at its fastest rate since the early 1990s and the housing market has crashed, pushing the country towards its first recession since 1992.

SHOW OF UNITY
Cabinet ministers have put on a show of unity at the conference in Manchester but speculation that Brown could be ditched has refused to die.
Four junior members of the government quit or were sacked last week after calling for Brown to go.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, whose speech on Monday received a standing ovation, is most often singled out as a possible leader. He is only 43 and seen as a rising star in the party.
However, the growing global financial crisis may have given Brown some breathing space. One opinion poll last week, taken as he brokered a rescue deal for the country's biggest mortgage lender, showed the Conservative lead over Labour shrinking to 12 points from 21.
Labour activists also loudly cheered Brown's close ally, Chancellor Alistair Darling, for turning his fire on banks' multi-million pound bonuses and market excesses.
After more than a decade of trumpeting a light-touch regulation that has made Britain one of the world's most important financial hubs, Labour may find it can win back its traditional supporters by curbing unfettered capitalism.


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