Gordon Brown 'stepping down as Labour leader'

Gordon Brown has said he is stepping down as Labour Party leader.
Mr Brown, prime minister since 2007, said he wanted a successor to be in place by the time of the party's conference in September.
Mr Brown announced his intention to quit in a statement in Downing St in which he also said his party was to start formal talks with the Lib Dems.
The Conservatives won the most seats and most votes in the election and have been in talks with the Lib Dems.
But Mr Brown's statement will be seen as a move to smooth the way to a deal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats to form a government.
Voters' judgement
Mr Brown said Britain had a "parliamentary and not presidential system" and said there was a "progressive majority" of voters.
He said if the national interest could be best served by a coalition between the Lib Dems and Labour - he said he would "discharge that duty to form that government".

I will play no part in that contest, I will back no individual candidate Gordon Brown Lib Dems seek more Tory details

But he added that no party had won an overall majority in the UK general election and, as Labour leader, he had to accept that as a judgement on him.
"I therefore intend to ask the Labour Party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election.
"I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour Party conference.
"I will play no part in that contest, I will back no individual candidate."
Formal process
Lib Dem leader Mr Clegg had requested formal negotiations with Labour and it was "sensible and in the national interest" to respond positively to the request, Mr Brown said.
He said the Cabinet would meet soon and a "formal policy negotiation process" would be established.
It emerged earlier that the Lib Dem negotiating team, who have held days of talks with the Conservatives, had also met senior Labour figures in private.
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said one of the stumbling blocks to any Lib Dem-Labour deal had been Mr Brown himself.
John Mann, the first Labour MP to call for him to go after the election result, said Mr Brown had made a "wise and brave" decision.
The Tories secured 306 of the 649 constituencies contested on 6 May. It leaves the party short of the 326 MPs needed for an outright majority, with the Thirsk and Malton seat - where the election was postponed after the death of a candidate - still to vote.
Labour finished with 258 MPs, down 91, the Lib Dems 57, down five, and other parties 28.
If Labour and the Lib Dems joined forces, they would still not have an overall majority.
With the support of the Northern Irish SDLP, one Alliance MP, and nationalists from Scotland and Wales they would reach 328, rising to 338 if the DUP, the independent unionist and the new Green MP joined them. (from BBC)

he has done it with great dignity..lets hope a new labour leader is in place soon.....

Once he has suceeded in scuppering the Conservative/LibDem coalition he will just carry on and call another election later this year. If he wins this he will stay as leader.
He has lied his way through the last 12 years, so he won't change now.

sorry king cole it appears it is the lib dems who are holding the country to ransom..they have now agreed to holding talks with labour after gb announces his resignation xx

That is why he announced his 'resignation'. It was a condition of the LibDems that he quit before they would agree to talk to Labour.

They will offer the LibDems practically anything they want to keep themselves in power. Having done that they will welsh on it all and call another election.

In all the negotiating only one group does not matter the people of the uk these guys are only interested in careers. We are still paying the wages of the mps voted out they will get £65000 for resettlement grants. Some of the corrupt MPS are back at westminster Our local MP is being investigated at the present time for using expenses to pay for his election mailings. Britian is now no better than Zimbabwe

The sad thing is that labour won a landslide in the last election in 2005 with 9,562,122 votes and this election conservatives have 10,706,647 votes (1.2 million more) yet have no majority.

So now we have a small core of people (Lim Dem Party) deciding on who gets to govern. Funny old thing is a democracy.

Hey Trucker, Britain may be bad, but sorry, it is a damn site better than Zimbabwe.

seems the uk have now got the government they deserve...wonder how long it willbe before cameron and his lib dem alliance put the country even further down the road to ruination...god help the uk now x

A country on its uppers run by crooks and chancers in that respect we are no beter than a third world country. Camero when asked a few months ago what he thought was the biggest joke in westminster replied Nick Clegg. They are known to hate each other what a bunch of two faced arseholes.

No No Trucker.Just politicians.Mandelson for President anyone?

Trucker you have to accept one thing and that is the answer to the following question.

How do you know if a politician is lying??

His lips are moving!!

The situation we now find ourselves in is very good because it is, in effect, a dummy trial of proportional representation and :-

On the one hand it will prove a total disaster and end all talk of PR once and for all.

Or on the other it could turn out to be very sucessful and beneficial to the country, in which case we would be happier about going ahead with PR.

So Cam was lying when he told Cleggie he loved him. Anything to get him into bed.

About time Brown 'stepped down' considering he was never elected in the first place. Now he and Blair should be locked up for the damage they have done to Great Britain. Brown was totally out of his depth while Blair, typical lawyer, new when to stand down so he could start filling his bank account.