The Glasgow East By-election 2008

'Judging by the result in Glasgow East, anyone succeeding Mr Brown now would be the shortest surviving prime minister in British political history.' Telegraph Editorial, 26 th July 2008.

Glasgow's howl of anger echoes across Britain

Telegraph Editorial, 26 th July 2008

Labour's defeat in Glasgow East ranks alongside the greatest by-election setbacks suffered by any governing party.

When the Conservatives lost a similarly safe redoubt, Christchurch, in 1993, the victorious Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown called it "a shout of rage from the heart of England." Glasgow East was a howl of anger, and one that is now coming from all corners of Britain.

In swift succession, Labour has been hammered at local elections in England and Wales, lost political control in London, been humiliated at Henley, ousted in Crewe and Nantwich and now humbled by the SNP in their Scottish heartland.

Scores of Labour seats once considered safe are now marginals; and from the MPs who occupy them come mutterings about Mr Brown's continued leadership.

However, we are less interested in the concerns of Labour MPs for saving their own skins than about the future of the country and the Government's capacity to deal with the perilous economic waters that lie ahead.

We see no signs that any of Mr Brown's potential successors would adopt a different approach by cutting taxes, reducing spending and bearing down on public sector waste. A year ago, when Labour comfortably won by?elections in Sedgefield and Ealing, Mr Brown was riding high in the polls. His precipitous slide is partly to do with the world economic slowdown and the credit crunch; but the past 12 months have also been remarkable for the incompetence of his government and the unravelling of his fiscal policy.

The 10p tax fiasco, the U-turns on fuel duty and non-domicile taxation, the failure properly to regulate the banking sector, the steep decline in tax receipts, the record borrowing: these all point to a nervous and uncertain hand on the tiller of state when strong and purposeful captaincy is essential.

A union chief yesterday said a Labour leadership election would "clear the air". It is more likely, however, given the practical difficulties of removing a prime minister unwilling to go, that Mr Brown will remain in office until the spring of 2010.

Perhaps a reshuffle would reinvigorate his government and there are candidates aplenty for the chop; but again, if the policies remain the same, what national, as opposed to party, purpose would be served by changing personnel?

Any Cabinet minister leading a coup against Mr Brown should consider this. Another change of prime minister would necessitate a general election. Labour could not pull off the same trick twice.

Judging by the result in Glasgow East, anyone succeeding Mr Brown now would be the shortest surviving prime minister in British political history.