Brown assured of succeeding Blair without vote

London, May 17: Finance minister Gordon Brown was assured of becoming Britain's next prime minister without a vote today after winning overwhelming backing from his party's legislators.

The ruling Labour Party said 307 of the party's 353 lawmakers had nominated Brown to be the party's next leader, which will automatically make him prime minister once Tony Blair steps down at the end of June.

News reports said at least one more Labour legislator would nominate Brown tomorrow and that another, the deputy speaker of parliament, would not nominate anyone.

That made it mathematically impossible for Brown's only possible rival, left-winger John McDonnell, to obtain the 45 nominations he needs to qualify as an official candidate.

McDonnell, who had secured just 29 nominations with less than a day to go before nominations closed, conceded defeat.

''Naturally, I congratulate Gordon and wish him every success in government, but it is a great shame that Labour Party members will now not be allowed a vote on the leader of their party or the party's future direction,'' he said in a statement.

Since Brown has no challenger, there will be no vote among Labour Party members and the six-week leadership contest becomes a formality.

Brown, who has long nursed an ambition to be prime minister, will have to explain his policies at 10 campaign-style ''hustings'' around Britain over the next few weeks.

But he is now certain to be proclaimed the party's next leader at a conference on June 24 -- three days before Blair resigns after a decade as prime minister.

Contest

Many party members had called for an election, rather than a ''coronation'' of Brown, to allow for a debate on the direction of the Labour Party, which many believe needs fresh impetus after a decade in power.

But, one by one, potential heavyweight challengers ruled themselves out. Five candidates have so far secured enough nominations to take part in an election to be Labour's deputy leader.

Blair won three national elections but his popularity was undermined by his support for the Iraq war and by a series of political scandals and Labour now lags behind the opposition Conservatives in the polls.

The next parliamentary election is not expected until 2009.

Setting out his stall in recent days, Brown has pledged to make education an investment priority and has tried to seize the green initiative by announcing plans to build five environmentally friendly ''eco-towns''.

He has accepted mistakes were made in Iraq but has ruled out an immediate pullout of British troops.

Reuters>