Gordon Brown should face a leadership challenge before the next election, a senior union leader said yesterday.

Echoing views more widely felt in the union movement, Paul Kenny, the general secretary of the GMB, said that the Prime Minister should face a John Major-style “back me or sack me” contest with MPs deciding his future.

Speaking moments after Mr Brown appealed for two more years in power before calling a general election, and less than 12 hours after Labour lost the Glasgow East by-election, he said that the party had to resolve the issue before the next election.

“Either he goes or he stays. All this whispering behind the scenes must stop and you either back him or sack him.”

Expert View

No-one can possibly overestimate the scale of the disaster which hit Gordon Brown and Labour in Glasgow East

Angus Macleod, Scottish Political Editor

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• Brown's reaction

Suggesting that MPs should put an end to the issue immediately, he said: “The circus moves on to Westminster now. The summer holidays should not stop moves to remove Mr Brown. “[MPs] might be on holiday but they get their papers. They need to decide”.

The Times understands that several union leaders, who gathered at the party's National Policy Forum in Warwick yesterday to hear Mr Brown speak, have expressed this view in private, but stopped short of saying it publicly.

Tony Woodley, joint secretary of Unite, the largest union, said that a change of policies rather than personnel was needed.

John Hutton, the Blairite business secretary who has taken a stand against the unions, responded by dismissing their influence. He asked: “Who are they? What is their mandate? Who elected them?”

His comments provoked a huge row after union barons saw them on Times Online. Officials said that union leaders from Unite, the largest union, are now planning to tour the television studios to denounce Mr Hutton, who said he had "no idea" whether he would be in the same job in six months time

Graham Stringer, the Labour MP for Manchester Blackley, added his voice to the discontent surrounding Mr Brown's leadership.

Mr Stringer said that it was time for a “new start” in the wake of the loss of Labour’s 25th safest seat to the Scottish National Party. The Cabinet should have a “closed and honest discussion with Gordon Brown,” he said.

“We need a new start and that can only come from a debate around the leadership.”

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