BRITAIN:BRITISH CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron would demand an immediate general election should Labour MPs decide to oust prime minister Gordon Brown.
That was the one certainty to emerge from a weekend of speculation about Mr Brown's "isolation" from cabinet colleagues and backbenchers in the aftermath of Labour's heavier-than-expected defeat in the Crewe and Nantwich byelection last week.
Conservative spokesman Chris Grayling said any alternative Labour leader would have to commit to an immediate election, arguing that "it would be a constitutional abuse" for Labour MPs to think they could "foist one unelected prime minister after another" on the country.
Allies of the beleaguered prime minister also raised the prospect of an enforced early poll, warning potential rebels that any move against Mr Brown would amount to a "mass suicide" pact. The Mail on Sundayquoted one Brown loyalist suggesting that Labour MPs were unlikely "to commit political hara-kiri en masse" while insisting the prime minister had two years in which to turn his and his party's position around.
As so-called "Blairite ultras" maintained public silence and continued taking soundings behind the scenes, the alternative argument being canvassed was that a new leader might be necessary, if only to reduce the scale of a general election defeat and prevent Labour being locked out of power "for a generation".
However senior cabinet ministers again rallied to deny rumoured plots to have the proverbial "men in suits" tell Mr Brown his time is up or, alternatively, to demand the appointment of "a successor-in-waiting" in case the prime minister fails to stop the haemorrhaging of Labour support.
One of those tipped for such a role - health secretary Alan Johnson - insisted there was "absolutely no appetite" in the party for a change of leadership.
Asked about the suggestion that Mr Brown could be forced to name a deputy so that a successor could be readily available, Mr Johnson noted his own failure to win that position a year ago and indicated he would not accept it now. "I would say no. But it's never going to happen," Mr Johnson told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.
Foreign secretary David Miliband, meanwhile, described as "fiction" a Sunday Timesreport that he was "preparing to throw his hat into the ring in a leadership contest". Mr Miliband - who resisted Blairite pressure to stand against Mr Brown last year — repeated his view that the prime minister remained "the best man for the job".
As for suggestions that he had confided his readiness to stand should a critical mass of backbenchers turn against Mr Brown, Mr Miliband told Adam Boulton on Sky News: "The one alleged fact in there is that I spent the last 48 hours in plotting meetings.
"Actually, I've been in New York, California and Washington with Condi Rice. I landed at one o'clock and I've been with my family since then."
Mr Miliband went on: "There's fiction and there's reality. And the reality is that the government has taken some beatings but the test is do we have the character and the grit and then the policies and the vision to go forward. And I believe we do. That's what we've all got to get down to."
Mr Miliband also warned Labour MPs: "We have a collective responsibility, every single member of the cabinet but actually every single member of the party, because there is something bigger going on here. David Cameron is not just seeking to bury Gordon Brown, he is seeking to bury a whole political project that has turned Labour from being a natural party of opposition to being a forceful party of government."