Clarke: Labour could be 'destroyed'
Friday, 12 June 2009 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Unless Labour's fortunes improve, the party could be destroyed, former home secretary Charles Clarke has said.
In a Straight Talk interview with Andrew Neil, he said: "If we don't make a change in our performance, we could be seeing almost the destruction of the Labour party which would be a total, total disaster."
He said that the public's opinion about the new government and the performance of the party would be crucial to the next developments and especially to Brown's survival as prime minister.
"It will depend how events go but more importantly than any other single thing it will depend how the people of the country form their judgement of our party and the government."
Banking on the results of the by-elections and Labour's ratings in the poll, Brown could still be the leader for the next election, Clarke commented.
"And if, for example, the poll ratings go up or we win these by-elections which are going to come through or whatever, I think the issue will go away and he can be confident he leads us into the next election."
"If, on the other hand, he somehow doesn't fulfil those things or electorally we do badly or whatever it might be, then the issue will still be there."
The Norwhich South MP said that Labour could even lose 100 seats in the next election, if things don't improve for the party.
"Some of the polling, some of the people I trust most who watch opinion believe that if we keep going without improving, we could come third, we could even be down to less than a 100 seats or whatever."
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