Brown Survives Party Revolt

British PM Gordon Brown survived a rowdy party meeting today despite Labour’s dismal election results and a backbencher uprising, the Guardian reports. 16 Labour parliamentarians spoke in defense of Brown and five called for his resignation in the wake of a high-profile financial scandal. “You solve the problem not by walking away but by facing it and doing something about it,” Brown said in a call for unity.

The Labour Party was decimated in European Parliament and municipal elections yesterday, and national elections must be held in 2010—which the opposition Conservatives are projected to take easily, the AP adds. “Labour cannot win with the present prime minister,” an opponent says. That makes it more likely Brown will stay on, since none of his rivals want to guide a sinking ship.
(More Gordon Brown stories.)