HOWZAT

"If he reshuffles on Monday the Opposition will say that it is a panic measure. If he reshuffles in a month they will say he is dithering. He is no longer in charge of the agenda."

Calls for the party to change direction also came from the former Blairite Cabinet heavyweight, David Blunkett, to the political right of the party, who told the Government to "get a grip" and re-engage with voters’ day-to-day concerns.

"We’ve got to get a grip and we’ve got to build on the progress we’ve made but we can’t rest on what we’ve done. It’s about what we promise people for the world of tomorrow," he said.

Another Labour backbencher, Ian Gibson, said that Mr Brown had until the autumn’s party conference to prove he could lead the party to victory or face angry challenges.

“At the annual conference, if we think we are in a position where we could certainly lose the next election and nothing is happening and we are not moving forward with new exciting issues, then I think a lot of people will... get very angry," he said.

“There is time to come up with it but if not, we want to win for Labour, we want to to win that fourth term. If Brown is the man to do it he’s got to give us those policies.”

Labour's woes increased further at lunchtime today when it emerged that the party had been forced to abandon the appointment of a City chief as its new general secretary.

David Pitt-Watson, whose appointment was announced in March and had been expected to start work in June, pulled out amid delays in getting him into the position.

The party announced earlier this month that “contractual difficulties” in his present job as chairman of City firm Hermes Equity Ownership meant there would be a delay. But today it confirmed it had started a new search for a permanent replacement for Peter Watt, who quit amid controversy over loans from the property developer David Abrahams.

In a statement, Labour said that it had been “understood arrangements would need to be made for David to take up the position. Unfortunately this has not proved possible without significant further delay in the post being filled and therefore David has decided in the interests of the party not to take up the post.”

The Tories labelled the scenario “utterly shambolic". In a statement, Tory shadow Cabinet minister Chris Grayling said: "If Gordon Brown can’t manage his own party properly and if the state of Labour means that their chosen new General Secretary won’t now even join them, then it’s hardly any wonder that the Government as a whole is in such a state of disarray."

A chastened Mr Brown today admitted it had been a "bad" night for Labour, and said he felt "sad" that so many Labour councillors had lost their seats.

However, he appeared to reject calls for a major change of direction and said that he would show the necessary "courage and conviction" to overcome the current troubles. Analysts believe the Prime Minister has ruled out any Cabinet reshuffle on the back of the results, and was determined to show he was a politician of conviction.

"It is clear to me that this has been a disappointing night and a bad night for Labour. My job is to listen and to lead and that is what I will do," he told a Downing Street press conference with Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister.

Mr Brown said he would "listen and lead" as Prime Minister, but added: "The test of leadership is not what happens in a period of success but what happens in difficult circumstances. The challenge of leadership is to take the country through difficult times as well as good times."

In a series of interviews today, Mr Cameron vowed that the Conservatives would not be complacent, despite their victory, and would make their own case for government, not simply based on Labour's problems.

"I think these results are not just a vote against Gordon Brown and his Government. I think they are a vote of positive confidence in the Conservative Party," he told reporters as he left his west London home.

"I think this is a very big moment for the Conservative Party, but I don’t want anyone to think that we would deserve to win an election just on the back of a failing Government."

To make matters even more difficult for Mr Brown, the Prime Minister this evening faces having his body language analysed by journalists worldwide when he is reunited in public for the first time since last summer with his predecessor, Tony Blair, the man who brought Labour three successive election victories.

The pair will hold a press conference aimed at persuading British firms to invest in the Palestinian territories, with Mr Blair now working as the Quartet's Middle East peace envoy.

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