UK's Brown under pressure as another minister quits

By Frank Prenesti and Matt Falloon

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown's political future was in doubt on Wednesday with party rebels said to be campaigning for him to quit after a second minister resigned before an expected rout in European and local polls.

Brown faced opposition taunts in parliament that his government was in "meltdown" after Communities Minister Hazel Blears decided to quit a day before Thursday's elections.

Rebels within Brown's ruling Labour Party began circulating a draft email calling on Brown to resign, according to several media reports. A Labour politician told Reuters he understood such a letter was in the works.

"We believe that in the current political situation, you can best serve the Labour Party and the country by stepping down as party leader and prime minister," the email said, according to Sky News.

The BBC reported that the rebels plan to send a message more widely -- possibly on Friday -- to gauge the appetite for a challenge to Brown, who replaced Tony Blair mid-term in 2007 after serving as finance minister for a decade.

Hard-hit by a scandal over lawmakers' expenses, Labour trails the opposition Conservatives by up to 20 points with a parliamentary election due by mid-2010. Brown has pinned any hope of bouncing back on a swift improvement in Britain's shrinking economy.

Tony Travers, politics professor at London School of Economics, said: "It all adds up to a hemorrhaging of authority in the Brown government."

Blears's resignation followed a similar move by Britain's first female interior minister, Jacqui Smith, and pre-empted a widely expected cabinet reshuffle.