British prime minister Gordon Brown should stand down as party leader if he cannot improve his government's performance in the coming months, former home secretary Charles Clarke said today.
Mr Clarke said Labour was heading for "disaster" at the next election if it did not change course.
In a rare outbreak of dissent within the party, Mr Clarke told the BBC that Mr Brown had been a brilliant Chancellor of the Exchequer but now needed to set a "very clear leadership direction".
Failing that, Mr Clarke said Mr Brown should stand down as prime minster "with honour" and the party should hold a leadership election.
Asked how long he thought Mr Brown had to turn matters round, Mr Clarke said: "I think it is a question of months."
Mr Clarke was sacked as home secretary in 2006 and has never hidden his doubts about Mr Brown's ability to lead the party.
Mr Brown's popularity has been in freefall since he opted against calling a snap general election last October.
Labour has suffered a string of recent election setbacks with opinion polls suggesting David Cameron's Conservatives are on course for a landslide victory at the next general election, due by May 2010.
Mr Clarke defended his decision to speak openly about the party's problems.
"Talk to almost any member of parliament, any party activist, you will find deep concerns about where we stand and what we do.
"I believe there is a real desire in the Labour party ... to say we are not ready just to go and sleepwalk into disaster."
But Mr Clarke said he would not stand as a "stalking horse" to force a leadership election and said he would not advise anyone else to do so either.
"The party's constitutional procedures in this kind of circumstance are very cumbersome, they would lead to bitter division and bitter problems."
Reuters