Brown under fire over poll disaster

Jul 25 2009

Gordon Brown has come under fire from former Cabinet minister Charles Clarke for his "incompetent and unjust" handling of the expenses scandal.

In the aftermath of Labour's humiliating defeat in the Norwich North by-election, Mr Clarke blamed the dramatic swing away from the party on the Prime Minister's response to the crisis.

The former Home Secretary, MP for neighbouring Norwich South, accused both Mr Brown and Tory leader David Cameron of abandoning "fairness" and "denigrating" their own MPs.

Writing in the Independent, Mr Clarke said: "It was this arbitrary approach which led directly to the by-election as the Prime Minister vilified Ian Gibson, but not on any fair basis.

"This incompetent and unjust style has deeply damaged democratic politics. Moreover, the appalling result in Norwich illustrates the important political side-effect that Labour, as the governing party, has been injured worst of all.

"The main reason for the Norwich result was that voters there were quite clear that it was for them, not the Labour leadership, to decide whether or not Ian Gibson remained their MP."

Mr Gibson resigned as MP for Norwich North after being told by a Labour disciplinary panel he would not be allowed to stand at the next election over revelations about his expenses claims.

Labour is licking its wounds after Tory candidate Chloe Smith overturned Mr Gibson's 5,000-plus Labour majority to win the seat by 7,348 votes.

She secured a swing of 16.4% and more than twice as many votes as Labour rival Chris Ostrowski, who held on to second place ahead of the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party.

Mr Cameron declared the result a victory for honesty in the face of Labour "lies", saying an "utterly despicable" campaign presided over by Mr Brown had backfired as his party easily snatched the seat.