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Rebel envoy axed by Brown

13/09/2008

Gordon Brown dismissed his envoy to Cyprus, Joan Ryan, today after she called for a vote against his leadership.

Ms Ryan, who is also vice chair of the Labour party, has called for the party's "direction and leadership" to be debated openly at next week's autumn conference in Manchester.

The Enfield North MP's dismissal follows that of assistant whip Siobhain McDonagh, who led calls for all members of the parliamentary Labour party to be given leadership nomination papers at conference.

This morning Ms Ryan followed Ms McDonagh's lead, saying on the Today programme: "I think we need to have a leadership election to trigger a deep and far-reaching debate and those people in our party who have something to offer and are capable of leadership need to put themselves forward.

"We need a multiplicity of candidates. That's a healthy thing to do and that's part of the democracy of our party. It's happening anyway, as I say, but it's happening behind closed doors."

Labour general secretary Ray Collins is sticking firmly to party procedure, which requires 20 per cent of Labour MPs to unify in the call for a leadership challenge.

Ms Ryan added: "We need to have this debate about the direction and leadership of our country out in the open now.

"The fact that it's a little more open now is healthy, better. It's happened at all levels of the party. Direction and leadership are inextricably linked. We need to have this debate."