Would Brown Resign the Leadership After Defeat in a General Election?

Conservatives being 15 points ahead of Labour has set off another flurry of discussion on Brown's continued leadership of the Labour party. Most commenters think it is unlikely a Labour leader who is prime minister will be unseated by his party - an eminently reasonable point of view considering the only way to do it would be by persuading him to voluntarily resign. Brown? Resign off his own bat?

So the interesting questions are two:

will he attempt to avoid calling a general election in which he will be defeated? Will he resign the leadership of the Labour party after defeat?

Most commenters again believe it most unlikely that Brown will subvert what remains of the British constitution and simply go on and on. Yet precedents for going on and on do exist, particularly in times of national crisis and great external threat. The last was the Second war. Then there was a National government or, to be more specific, a Conservative government with some Labour party ministers serving under a Conservative prime minister and at his invitation.

The emphasis put upon the foreign nature of the crisis by Brown, that all the damage is arriving from outside, may not be just self-serving excuses-seeking. It establishes the scenario of 'Britain' under severe external threat. The invitations ( some of which were, to their shame, accepted by members of other parties) to serve in a Brown government caused surprise at the time but perhaps should be seen in the context of an embryo national government, a small try-out for later expansion. As should the use of appointing technical advisers to the Lords (and twice-sacked, unelectable politicians) and then to government roles that until the very recent past would have been required to be held by people elected to and answerable in the Commons. It should be remembered, too, that there is a great deal of legislation passed by New Labour to control civic protest and very little redress available within our constitution when it is not honoured in its spirit.

Assuming, though, that Brown does go to the country, and loses, there is no reason to believe that he will resign the leadership. There is every reason to think he will not. The crumbs of shadow office are better than nothing at all, for him and for his henchmen, and they will not want to let go their tight grip on the Labour party - their only vehicle for a return to power in four or five years. Yes, Brown has had word put out that he would serve only one full parliament, but Brown is a proven liar. And what is true of him does not bind the rest of them; they will be even more determined, if that were possible, to keep what they can hold.

Of course, electoral failure will remove many from the House of Commons, particularly Scottish Westminster MPs, but the savage rending and fighting that will break out when Brown closes his fist round the leadership of the Labour Party will put him in his element. He has proven that he cannot run a financial and economic system for toffee, but equally he has proven that the bottom-feeders' wasteland of Labour party politics is his element.

If many in the Labour party want him out, they should go for him now, by all and any means, and ensure that their defeat is limited in scope under a more acceptable leader and that they are a more electable and united Opposition with a decent chance in 2015.