If Brown can't run a reshuffle, how can he run the country?

David Cameron accused Gordon Brown of lacking the authority necessary to run the country after his reshuffle plans were disrupted by a series of resignations by Cabinet members.

David stressed the reshuffle was an "emergency" measure to "cling on to office" - and accused the Mr. Brown of "taking people for fools" by claiming the recession was ordered and calm when in fact it was driven by damaging Ministerial resignations.

“The Prime Minister isn’t reshuffling his cabinet; they’re reshuffling themselves…A Prime Minister with that little authority can’t take the tough decisions this country needs”.

David said that Britain "deserves better" than needs a "weak and divided" Government - and stressed, "Today’s results show that in the Conservative Party there is a strong, united, positive alternative."

He called on Gordon Brown to dissolve Parliament and call a General Election immediately for the sake of the country:

"If you can't run a reshuffle, if you can't run a Cabinet, how on earth can you run a country?"

Message from the PM on changes to the Cabinet

This government will never stop fighting for ordinary people in these extraordinary times.

Today I have reshaped the government around three clear priorities - cleaning up politics, getting through this downturn fairly and giving people greater control over their public services.

We need a clean up of our politics in this country. Politicians must serve the public, and not themselves. We will act quickly to bring in an independent regulator to scrutinise the behaviour of our MPs. We will introduce a tough, legally binding code of conduct for MPs. In addition every single expense claim made by MPs of all parties over the last four years will be scrutinised by an independent audit panel. But we must go further and look at issues about how we elect our MPs and how we open up all public bodies to the closest public scrutiny.

We will continue to intervene decisively on the economy. When people are suffering you cannot have a "do nothing" approach to the recession. You cannot cut your way out of recession, you can only grow your way out. And in the coming weeks we will outline our plan to build Britain's future. A plan for building new sources of growth, new jobs, new homes and new infrastructure.

Finally, we can only build Britain's future if we have not only a strong economy but good public services that can meet the challenges of the future. So the third leg of our strategy for building Britain's future is the next stage of reform in public services, a reform driven by one central principle that everyone and not a privileged few have a fair chance to succeed. And this will depend crucially on putting much greater power in the hands of patients and parents.

I have chosen a determined and strong Cabinet that will fight hard for British people in these difficult times and deliver upon these three crucial priorities.

I would be interested in hearing your views on these priorities and the changes we have made.

Gordon Brown

‘Rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic’ – says Plaid MP

Plaid Cymru’s leader in Westminster Elfyn Llwyd MP has responded to the announcement that Peter Hain is to step back into his former role as the Secretary of State for Wales following the Cabinet reshuffle.

Commenting on the news, Elfyn Llwyd MP said:

“Peter Hain is a familiar face in Welsh politics and he played an important role in the constitutional development of Wales ; but today’s frantic Cabinet reshuffle is not going to solve the crisis currently engulfing Westminster . This is just re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic.

“It is more important than ever that we hold a General Election now and I would urge all MPs to support the Plaid and SNP motion next week, to call for the dissolution of Parliament. We desperately need to give the final say back to the people.

“In the meantime, I hope that in his new role, Mr Hain will endeavour to support the Plaid and Labour coalition in the Welsh Assembly Government.”

PANIC RESHUFFLE DICTATED BY RESIGNATIONS – “LAST THROW OF DICE” FOR BROWN

CASE FOR GENERAL ELECTION CONFIRMED

Commenting on Gordon Brown’s crisis Cabinet reshuffle today (Friday) in the wake of a series of senior resignations from the UK government SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson MP repeated calls for a General Election.

Mr Robertson said:

“This panic reshuffle has been dictated by the resignation of senior Ministers and the refusal of others to go. Gordon Brown may still just be in office – but he is not in power.

“The fact that the Prime Minister has been forced into rushing the reshuffle before the election results are even declared exposes the depth of his desperation. If Gordon Brown was in charge of events to any degree, he would have used the reshuffle to respond to the results of a likely election meltdown – in reality, it is a last throw of the dice by Gordon Brown to hold onto office.

“The Prime Minister has lost control of his party and lost the confidence of the country. We must now have a general election and allow the people to cast their verdict over the shambles that this Prime Minister is presiding over.

“In the wake of Cabinet resignations and a crisis reshuffle, as well as the ongoing expenses scandal, there can be no argument against the entire House of Commons submitting itself to a vote of the people.

“People want a General Election – not a reshuffle.

“Next Wednesday the SNP and Plaid Cymru will give Parliament the chance to give the people their say. All the opposition parties are backing the SNP and Plaid dissolution motion, and it is now for Labour MPs to get behind this and let the people have their say.”