Gordon Brown to resign: a very Labour coup

Telegraph
"Gordon Brown has been accused of a “sordid” attempt to keep Labour in power after offering his resignation in return for a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. ..Last night senior Conservatives accused the Lib Dem leader of “treachery” after it emerged that Mr Clegg had changed the basis of a deal with Mr Cameron just minutes before Mr Brown made his statement.

John Reid, the former Labour Home Secretary, warned that a Labour-Lib Dem coalition would result in “mutually assured destruction” for both parties.He also suggested that England would bear the brunt of public sector cuts under any Labour coalition deal because it would be dependent on support from nationalist MPs from Scotland and Wales. Mr Reid said that would “further enrage” English voters. ...Mr Brown said he believed a “progressive coalition” was in the interests of the “progressive majority”.That provoked a furious response from Conservatives. Lord Hurd, the former foreign secretary, said Britain was “on the edge of a crisis” and warned that Mr Brown’s refusal to admit Labour should not be running the country was “shabby, shameful and unfair”.Lord Heseltine, another former Tory Cabinet minister, claimed Mr Brown’s attempted deal with the Lib Dems was “party politics at its most sordid”.He added: “This is mind blowing. I don’t know how anyone would have such a barefaced nerve as to put such a proposition in the circumstances. The only viable solution is for David Cameron to become the prime minister.”A senior shadow cabinet minister said: “This is clear treachery on Nick Clegg’s part. He was saying one thing to us and planning another with Brown.”
Any suspicion that a Lib-Lab deal was not a real possibility was dispelled when Mr Clegg made a statement at 6.20pm.He made it clear that he could work with Labour and appeared to indicate that talks with the Conservatives were at an end.“Gordon Brown has taken a difficult personal decision in the national interest,’’ he said. ''And I think without prejudice to the talks that will now happen between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Gordon Brown’s decision is an important element which could help ensure a smooth transition to the stable government that everyone deserves.”