Comment Central: who will take over if Brown stands down?

Gordon Brown’s first move in a planned autumn political fightback emerged today as it was announced that Cabinet meetings would be moved out of London for the first time.

A specially convened meeting is expected to take place at a location yet to be confirmed in the West Midlands on Monday, September 8, a Downing Street spokesman said.

The move, which the Conservatives claim was copied from an idea floated by David Cameron, came after a proposal by Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, in a speech last May.

The decision comes as the Prime Minister is under huge pressure to regain his authority after political manoeuvring by ministers and Blairite MPs threatened to topple his Premiership.

A leaked memo this weekend, reportedly written by Tony Blair, accused Mr Brown of a “lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy” in his first few months in office. It said the Prime Minister had ceded ground to the Conservatives.

It has also been reported that a group of former Labour ministers, possibly led by Stephen Byers, would set out their own agenda to fill a perceived policy vacuum at the heart of Government.

The unnamed ministers said that their initiatives, likely to include four or five big policy ideas, would set Labour apart from the Conservatives. The launch could be timed to pre-empt Mr Brown’s own economic recovery plan in the autumn.

The move echoes the Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s intervention last week, in which he has been widely perceived as positioning himself for leadership.

Announcing plans to move the Cabinet, a Downing Street spokesman said it was hoped that in future more meetings would take place away from the Capital. Meetings are normally held on a Tuesday morning in Number 10.

Ministers will also be taking part in a series of other events in the region on the day where they will have an opportunity to “engage” with the public, he said.

“We feel that it is consistent with the Government’s approach that it wants to listen and learn from the experiences of people in this country,” the spokesman added.

Ms Blears said she had been lobbying for Cabinet meetings to be held outside the “Westminster bubble”. She proposed the move in a speech to the Social Market Foundation in May, and had urged Mr Brown to adopt the idea.

“I’m delighted that for the first time a Cabinet will be meeting outside of London," she said. “We will be taking politics closer to the people and hearing their concerns first hand."

However, Chris Graying, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, claimed that Mr Brown was simply following Tory leader’s idea.

“Gordon Brown doesn’t have a single original idea in his head any more,” he said. “Firstly he pinches many of our policies, now he’s following our lead by taking Cabinet meetings around the country like David Cameron has previously done with the shadow cabinet.

“This really is a Government that has run out of steam; Britain needs change with an early general election.”

The spokesman also confirmed that Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, was taking over responsibility for coordinating government activity while Mr Brown continued his family holiday in Suffolk.

He replaces Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, who was on duty last week. Mr Brown remained "closely involved" with key issues, the spokesman added.

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