Britannia Radio

THE SUN   25.9.08
Brown bounces, Kelly flounces
By GRAEME WILSON, Deputy Political Editor
and DAVID WOODING, Whitehall Editor

GORDON Brown’s make-or-break speech in Manchester gave Labour one of 
the biggest post-conference boosts in TWENTY YEARS.

He HALVED the Tory poll lead, it was dramatically revealed in a 
YouGov survey for The Sun.

But Brown’s bounce was immediately dented by a FLOUNCE — as Transport 
Secretary Ruth Kelly quit the Cabinet.

The PM’s powerful performance on Tuesday, following a wretched summer 
in which David Cameron had opened up a commanding lead, saw Labour 
shoot up SEVEN points to 31 per cent.

The Tories slipped back three points to 41 per cent — slashing their 
lead from 20 to ten points. The Lib Dems were on 16 per cent.

And 39 per cent of people polled said they wanted Mr Brown to stay in 
Number 10 — up ten points.

But the PM still has a long way to go to win back voters.
Six out of ten people still do not think Mr Brown understands what 
people are going through. And only 25 per cent think he is an asset 
to Labour.

Chaos
While 24 per cent of people thought Mr Brown would make the best 
premier, up eight points since last weekend, 32 per cent still chose 
Mr Cameron, down two points.

Nearly half, 49 per cent, thought Labour should replace the PM as 
their leader — although that was five per cent down on the weekend.

Ruth Kelly dramatically announced she will resign at the next Cabinet 
reshuffle — expected next weekend.

Publicly, she denied she was part of a plot to topple Mr Brown and 
insisted she wants to spend more time with her four young children.

But a close pal said last night: “The truth is, Ruth was very unhappy 
about Gordon’s leadership. That’s why she wanted out.”

News of her departure broke in the early hours of yesterday morning — 
and immediately wrecked the PM’s plans for a smooth reshuffle.  Amid 
scenes of chaos, Mr Brown’s aides ended up briefing journalists in a 
hotel bar at 3am.    Vicious back-biting broke out over who first 
leaked news of Ms Kelly’s resignation.

Cabinet colleagues saw the dark arts of the Number 10 spin machine at 
work.    They fear her departure was deliberately made public to 
avoid a co-ordinated campaign of high-profile resignations.

If so, the move backfired — because it appeared at first that Ms 
Kelly had walked out to undermine Mr Brown.

A Cabinet source said: “It was a complete shambles.  “Officials were 
running around the bars in the small hours trying to dampen down a 
story they started themselves which was now spreading out of control.”