Gordon Brown is facing another by-election after Davd Marshall, MP for Glasgow East, announced his resignation on health grounds.

The move comes amidst the turmoil in the Scottish Labour Party over today's resignation of party leader Wendy Alexander and days after Labour’s bruising fifth place humiliation behind the Green Party and the BNP in the Henley by-election.

David Marshall told local party activists he was stepping down because of ill health - setting up a showdown in one of Labour's safest Scottish seats, with a 13,507 majority.

Mr Marshall has been an MP since 1979 and was previously a Glasgow councillor.

The Scottish National Party will hope to cause the sort of upset inflicted on Labour by the Tories when they took the Crewe and Nantwich seat last month, or closer to home in 1988 when Jim Sillars took the even safer Labour seat of Glasgow Govan for the SNP with a 33% swing from Labour. The SNP is hoping to field the comedian and local resident Elaine C Smith as their candidate.

While Labour had no hope whatsoever in winning Henley, natural Conservative territory, party strategists will be alarmed at the dramatic collapse in its vote in a seat where it finished third in the last general election.

In the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, forced by the death of veteran MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, her 7,000 majority was transformed to an even bigger Conservative advantage at the height of the row over the scrapping of the 10p tax rate.

Mr Brown will also have bad memories of the 2006 by-election on his own doorstep in 2006 when the Liberal Democrats overturned an 11,000-plus Labour majority in Dunfermline and West Fife.

Mr Marshall has been ill for some time and his condition is believed to be related to depression. Party sources said recent scrutiny of parliamentary expenses claims had added to pressures on the MP as he employs his wife and daughter on his Commons payroll. There is no suggestion he did not abide by all the Commons rules governing expenses however.

A Labour party statement said: "David Marshall has indicated to local members in Glasgow that he will step down as a member of parliament. We understand that he has written to party members to say that his health has deteriorated and so our thoughts and prayers are with him at this time and we wish him a speedy recovery.

“We respectfully ask the media to give Mr Marshall the privacy he needs at this time. David Marshall has been an outstanding champion for the people of Glasgow all his life. He has always fought against poverty and spoken up for the people of the East End.

“This is a really difficult time for him, and hundreds of constituents will want to send him their best wishes.”

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