Purnell's resignation letter

LONDON (Reuters) - A third senior minister quit the British government on Thursday, calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to quit to improve his party's chances at a general election due with a year.

Following is the text of Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell's resignation letter to Brown as published by The Times newspaper's web site.

Dear Gordon

We both love the Labour Party. I have worked for it for twenty years and you for far longer. We know we owe it everything and it owes us nothing.

I owe it to our Party to say what I believe, no matter how hard that may be. I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more not less likely.

That would be disastrous for our country. This moment calls for stronger regulation, an active state, better public services, an open democracy. It calls for a government that measures itself by how it treats the poorest in society. Those are our values, not David Cameron's.

We therefore owe it to our country to give it a real choice. We need to show that we are prepared to fight to be a credible government and have the courage to offer an alternative future.

I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning.

The party was here long before us, and we want it to be here long after we have gone. We must do the right thing by it.