Leading British Politicians Resign

With the resignation of two key Ministers, both of them implicated in the expenses scandal currently gripping British politics, in the space of just two days, Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown could find his credibility increasingly on the line.

And with the likely damage to his own credibility comes a threat to the future of the entire administration. Already faced with the prospect of humiliating losses in the local government elections and the elections to the European Parliament that take place on June 4, Mr Brown may now find himself the subject of further demands from opposition politicians that he call a General Election. Following the resignations this week of Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears from their respective positions of Home Secretary and Communities Secretary, they may be demands that he finds it increasingly difficult to resist. Whilst the scandal surrounding the many and varied expenses claims made by British Members of Parliament has engulfed politicians from both the ruling Labour Party and those from the main opposition Conservative Party, it is the ruling party and it's leader Gordon Brown that appears to be bearing the brunt of most of the public's anger. That the party in power suffers most when news of a scandal breaks is perhaps not surprising but coming in the wake of the world financial crisis, that has also occurred on Labour's watch, the effect has been particularly damaging. The performance of Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the person chiefly responsible for the direction of economic policy, has attracted criticism from several quarters during the current financial crisis. In addition to that, Mr Brown's own performance as Chancellor between 1997 and 2007, he assumed the role of Prime Minister in the summer of 2007, has also come under scrutiny. Yet the outcry over the sometimes dubious expenses claims submitted by the representatives of the British people might have been a cloud with a silver lining. The financial crisis aside, that the expenses scandal involves politicians from both sides of the aisle might have led the British public to conclude that the alternative to the party in power is not so attractive after all. Newsweek magazine believes it may have the answer to that question. A report in it's June 1 edition quotes a recent poll by ICM in which voters, by a margin of 2 to 1, viewed the scandal as more damaging to Labour than it is to the Conservatives. It went on to explain why such a view might prevail. Citing the words of Harold Wilson, a Labour leader and Prime Minister of the 1960s and 1970s, Newsweek believes that the Conservatives " seem to have discovered the upside of low expectations". The image of sleaze and association with privilege, that the Conservative leader David Cameron has worked hard to change, may not actually matter that much. Not when the Labour Party is discovering the downside of high expectations. Mr Wilson's words illustrate the point.

The Labour Party is a moral crusade - or it is nothing

Therefore, not only have their policies seemingly served to disappoint the British public, but the apparent loss of their position on the moral high ground has also taken it's toll. Their landslide election victory in 1997 must seem like a distant memory now as the Labour Party, or New Labour as they have become known, waits to hear what is widely expected to be a damning verdict at the polls. More resignations may follow.