Brown facing growing revolt over leadership

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced growing calls Sunday for a leadership contest as more than a dozen lawmakers from his governing Labour party attacked his performance.

While only a small minority of Labour members of parliament have so far called for Brown to put his authority on the line, the dissenters insist momentum is building ahead of a party conference starting Saturday.

Fiona Mactaggart, a former Home Office Minister, said it was time to give the party a chance to replace Brown, who has seen support for Labour plummet in the 15 months since he took over from Tony Blair. “I think we should give a chance to someone else to take over, I really do,” she told BBC television.

She said the British electorate “seem to have lost a sense of what it is we’re trying to do and where we’re trying to take Britain”.

Mactaggart attributed Brown’s lack of credibility as prime minister to the fact that he had succeeded Blair in June last year without a leadership contest.