Poll adds to woes over Brown future

LONDON (Reuters) - Speculation about Prime Minister Gordon Brown's future gathered pace on Saturday with media reports of concern amongst senior Labour figures and a new opinion poll putting the Conservatives 22 points ahead.

Ministers have openly spoken of their support for the embattled prime minister but a day after Labour lost one of its safest parliamentary seats, newspapers were rife with rumours of backbenchers were sharpening their knives behind the scenes.

The Guardian newspaper said that discussions were under way at cabinet level on whether to seek Brown's "orderly resignation" while the Independent said Labour MPs were urging senior ministers to tell Brown to quit.

"I do not recognise those comments from the Cabinet colleagues I talk to," Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband told BBC's Newsnight programme when asked about the claims.

"People realise there is a big collective responsibility here -- the collective responsibility is not to turn inwards but to turn outwards and understand the concerns of the country."

The BBC also reported that Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who papers said had been approached by Labour backbench MPs to tell Brown to step down, had told them to "calm down".

The speculation has grown since the Scottish National Party (SNP) snatched a slim 365-vote majority in the Glasgow East constituency with a 22.5 percent swing that overturned the 13,500 majority enjoyed by Labour at the 2005 election.

In further bad news, an opinion poll for the Independent on Saturday showed the Conservatives with 46 percent support of voters, way ahead of Labour on 24 percent.

That would give the Tories a landslide victory at the next general election, which Brown must call by May 2010.