The man likely to replace Tony Blair as prime minister said on Tuesday he believes Blair will arrange a dignified and orderly exit.
”I think we can prove to the world that we can do these things in a unified and proper way,” Treasury chief Gordon Brown said in an interview on the morning television programme GMTV.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, meanwhile, warned competing factions within the governing Labour Party not to engage in a damaging public battle.
The party’s recent woes were reflected in an opinion poll published on Tuesday, which pegged its support at a 14-year low and found that half the respondents hoped Blair would resign within a year.
Blair refused on Monday to accede to demands from Labour critics that he announce the date of his eventual departure now, but renewed his promise to step down before the election expected in 2009 and give his successor enough time to establish himself before the vote.
Prescott, in his first public comments since acknowledging an extramarital affair two weeks ago, said he had urged Labour lawmakers impatient for Blair to go to keep quiet until the annual party conference in October, which he said was a natural time for such discussions.
”Whatever the feelings about this … I do say to people, don’t get into the war about it now. It is an unnecessary distraction,” The Independent newspaper quoted him as saying in an interview.
Prescott is seen as a crucial intermediary between Blair and Brown, one of few trusted by both men.
Prescott said he had been ”stupid” to have an affair with his secretary. The relationship became public just before last week’s local elections, in which Labour finished third.
It added to the government’s recent troubles, which also included official acknowledgment more than 1 000 foreign criminals were released without being screened for deportation.
In the Populus poll published on Tuesday by The Times, Labour fell to 30% support, eight points behind the opposition Conservatives.
Labour’s level of support was down six points from the previous month.
Blair reaffirmed on Monday that Brown was his choice to take over, but declined to specify when.
”To state a timetable would simply paralyse the proper working of government, put at risk the necessary changes we are making for Britain and therefore damage the country. It wouldn’t end this distraction but merely take it to a new level,” Blair told reporters. – Sapa-AP