Why Gordon Brown should stay

It's not a particularly popular view at this time but I see no need for Gordon Brown to quit as Prime Minister even if we get completely wiped out tomorrow.

I was a supporter of Brown in 1994 when he didn't stand, and of McDonnell in 2007 when he couldn't stand so that makes me about as good a backer of political winners as Polly Toynbee but here goes:

Brown was the choice of 313 Labour MPs (29 nominated McDonnell, 11 didn't nominate either candidate). If the Guardian is right and 70-80 backbenchers want Brown to go now they must include a large number of people who thought Brown was the right man 24 months ago and now want to stab him in the back. Like a football club chairman who appoints a new manager only to ditch him at the first run of bad results - these MPs need to explain themselves. And if they are doing this in the hope of losing the election by a couple percent less badly, to scrape home with a 1,000 majority instead of losing in their own seat then they deserve to get kicked out by the voters.

And can anyone say that ditching Brown and getting Alan Johnson or James Purnell in his place is going to make the slightest difference? I'm old enough to remember the Tories meltdown in the mid 90s, they stopped remembering what it was like in opposition, they thought that it was all down to presentation. Yes, presentation helps, but integrity is much more important and if you can't be proud about what you're selling, you're not going to be good at selling it. It's the product that's old, saggy and not fit for purpose. I propose that we should give Brown the chance to actually fix it.

UPDATE - Penny Red of course says it better than I could 

"It's not about the politics: it's about their own jobs, a sorry attempt to cool down public and press indignation at an expenses scandal in which they are all culpable by attacking the man who, for better or worse, they chose to lead them"

Quite right.