No room for further error

10:06am Monday 5th May 2008

IF Gordon Brown is to make a fist of his promised fightback, the first step was to hold up his hands and take responsibility for the very deep hole in which the Labour Party finds itself.

He did that yesterday in a very personal way by admitting to errors of judgement over the 10p tax rate and his dithering over an early General Election, as well as accepting his short-comings as a communicator.

The Prime Minister needed to publicly fall on his sword and he has done so.

Now he must begin the task of rebuilding confidence in himself, his party and his Government.

As it stands, with talk sweeping Westminster of possible challenges to his leadership in the wake of last week's electoral disaster, he faces a tough task.

But while there are Blairites openly rubbing their hands with glee at Mr Brown's problems, there is not yet enough of an appetite for a leadership battle within the Labour Party.

We believe that Mr Brown will get his chance to fight the next election, but the fightback has to gain momentum quickly and he cannot afford another blunder of 10p tax rate proportions.

As for David Cameron, sitting pretty with a luxurious lead, it must be tempting to simply sit back and let Mr Brown and his party implode.

That will not be good enough. The Tories are doing well on the back of Labour's failings - not because Mr Cameron so far makes a convincing Prime Minister-in-waiting.

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