Brown leading me down to oblivion – Ronnie Campbell

Jul 26 2008 by Phil Lambell, The Journal

GORDON Brown was last night warned Labour was facing oblivion in its North East heartlands.

Blyth Valley MP Ronnie Campbell called on the Prime Minister to stop “squeezing” people hit by rocketing food and fuel bills – and warned that even his seat was not safe.

Analysis by The Journal suggests Labour could lose a third of its 28 MPs after the Scottish National Party (SNP) won Glasgow East with a 22% swing on Thursday despite it previously being Labour’s 25th safest seat in the country.

Political expert Martin Farr, based at Newcastle University, said Labour could lose further seats in traditional heartlands like the North East.

He said such a large swing was unlikely in a general election – but the highest switch against Labour in the region was 12.5% in the 2005 national poll.

If that was replicated, 18 rather than 28 Labour MP would be left. Berwick’s Liberal Democrat MP Sir Alan Beith would be joined by seven other colleagues – ousting Regional Minster Nick Brown. And there would be four Tory MPs, rather than just one in Hexham, although boundary changes could also have an impact. Ronnie Campbell, who has led protests against controversial car tax hikes, said: “Nobody is safe, not even me. I have only got an 8,000 majority.”

Referring to the Prime Minister, he added: “He is going to take me down to oblivion or he has got to change his policies.

“If the Labour Party doesn’t change its policies back to our core vote, we might as well pack up and go home.” However, the MP warned his party would look stupid if Gordon Brown was replaced with the third prime minister in little over a year – with insiders warning it would force an unwinnable general election.

Blaydon MP Dave Anderson said: “We want no more mistakes like the 10p fiasco.

“We don’t want to see more privatisation of public services. We want to see some action on the economy and energy prices.

“We could reduce the energy prices, we could put a tax cut on if we chose to.”

Martin Farr said he expected Mr Brown to stagger on, despite his administration mirroring John Major’s doomed government: “It does seem to be in political meltdown.”

Hexham’s Tory MP Peter Atkinson said voters wanted change and would back the main opposition party if that was the SNP in Scotland or Conservatives in England. He added that the next general election looked promising, but urged against complacency with the Tories still needing to win up to 150 seats to win.

Carol Woods, Liberal Democrat deputy leader of Durham City Council, said her party would benefit from an anti- Labour vote as the main opposition in the region. The Parliamentary candidate for Durham City added that she only needed a small swing to win, having achieved a 12.5% swing against Labour in 2005.

“Even in what was before yesterday a rock-solid Labour seat, people are very fed up with Labour,” she added.

Government minister Helen Goodman, MP for Bishop Auckland, admitted that the Glasgow East by-election had not been a good night and the Government needed to deal with concerns about economic difficulties.

But she insisted that by-election results were exaggerated and public opinion was very volatile, although it was too soon to speculate about the general election.

Senior ministers rallied round Mr Brown as Tory leader David Cameron called for a general election and one Labour MP called for a leadership contest.

The Prime Minister brushed off his difficulties, saying: “My full focus is on taking people through these difficult economic times.

“Coming from ordinary families as we do and have done, we know what it is like when people go to the supermarket and find that the price of milk, and the price of bread, and the price of eggs have gone up dramatically in recent months,” he said. He added that ministers would be bringing forward fresh measures to help with household gas and electricity bills.