By IRNA,
London : Britain’s beleaguered Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted Tuesday that he would reject calls to resign because he was taking the correct ‘long-term decisions’ for Britain.
Many Labor MPs are reportedly dismayed by the prime minister’s performance since taking over from Tony Blair less than a year ago, but in an interview with Sky News, Brown said he was ‘staying in the job that I mean to continue’.
“I would say that I’m the person who set the Labour party off on the course of making long-term decisions for the future,” he said when asked what he would say to his colleagues, who think he should resign.
Brown’s performance is being blamed, at least in part, for Labor lagging behind the main opposition Conservative Party in the opinion polls.
In his interview, he also rejected public criticism saying that ‘of course when you have this economic downturn that affects Britain, people will immediately say that you could have done more’. But he insisted he was looking at ‘further measures to help people’.
Adding to Brown’s woes, Trade Minister Lord Jones was reported Tuesday to have told businessmen that he will resign before the next election because he is not prepared to support the prime minister publicly during the campaign.
Jones, who was the first British minister to be appointed by the prime minister without being a member of a political party, has decided that he will step down rather than risk a row that could damage the government, the Times newspaper said.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Brown is planning a summer reshuffle to reinvigorate his cabinet and stop the slump in Labor’s support in the run-up to the next election, which has to be held by June 2010 at the latest.
Among the minister expected to be replaced was the Defense Secretary Des Browne with Business Secretary John Hutton, the most likely to take over.