British prime minister Gordon Brown tried to stamp his authority on his ruling Labour Party today after surviving a plot to depose him less than five months before an election that he is expected to lose.
Despite trailing the opposition Conservatives by 10 points in the latest opinion poll, Mr Brown was set to tell Labour politicians later today that an historic fourth consecutive election victory was still within their grasp.
"We can beat them, we must beat them and we will beat them," Mr Brown will say in a speech in which he plans to lay out his election strategy. His office released extracts in advance.
Two former cabinet ministers called for a secret ballot of Labour members of parliament last week to decide if Mr Brown should lead the party into an election due by June.
The plot failed to win high-level support. But several cabinet ministers initially gave only lukewarm backing to Mr Brown, hinting at unhappiness with his leadership.
One such minister, Foreign secretary David Miliband, gave a ringing endorsement of Mr Brown today, saying he had "enormous strength, he has very, very strong values, he has real determination to do what is right for people."
Mr Miliband, widely viewed as a possible successor to Mr Brown, told the BBC there was no leadership election and that cabinet ministers were fully focused on their jobs.
"We are absolutely clear that we are going to go into the election under Gordon's leadership," he said.
In a show of party unity, Mr Brown will be joined at this evening's meeting by senior cabinet ministers Harriet Harman, Peter Mandelson, and Douglas Alexander, all expected to play prominent roles in the election campaign.
With Britain saddled with a record budget deficit after the worst recession in more than 50 years, the main parties have effectively already begun the election campaign with clashes over the economy and public spending.
Mr Brown, who has struggled to quell dissent within his party since replacing Tony Blair in 2007, will seek to portray the Conservatives as "a party of austerity". Their leader David Cameron has said he will cut public spending faster and further than Labour if he wins the election due by June.
Financial markets are watching for details about how the next government will cut the budget deficit.
Mr Brown announced a £300 million plan today to provide free laptop computers and broadband Internet access for 270,000 low income families by March next year.
Mr Cameron promised to offer tax breaks to same-sex couples engaging in civil partnerships, one of a raft of family-friendly measures he hopes will soften his party's image. The leader of the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, who could be a pivotal figure if no major party wins a parliamentary majority in the election, jettisoned a number of spending pledges today because indebted Britain cannot afford them.
Public borrowing is set to hit £178 billion this year as the government spends heavily to ease the country through a recession that has cut economic output by 6 percent and slashed tax revenue.
Mr Brown also faces criticism over Britain's military involvement in Afghanistan and Labour politicians' role in an expenses scandal.
Reuters