Brown given a month to revitalise his premiership

London, Aug.4 : Gordon Brown has been given a month to revitalise his premiership, rising above a period of massive fuel hikes, the credit crunch and cabinet ministers openly touting for his job

The Independent quoted Blairite factions of the Government as saying that the "crunch" will come at the end of the month.

Dissenters have warned Brown that he will have to come up with some positive initiatives to turn his government's fortunes around, or he may be asked to quit.

"He hasn't got many other tricks left in his locker. He will need to have a cabinet reshuffle, and he will need to make a success of the economic relaunch he has got planned. Otherwise the Cabinet will be under heavy pressure to act. The crunch time will be late this month," the paper quoted a former Cabinet member, as saying.

The warning came as Brown's authority suffered another blow on Sunday with the leak of a memo by his predecessor, Tony Blair, criticising his style of government.

The note, written last September, complained "there has been a lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy". Blair said that under his successor, Labour had "dissed on our own record", which worked as a short-term tactic, but strategically was a "fatal mistake".

The hunt was on yesterday for the identity of the mole, said to be a former political adviser of Blair. The Government no longer employs him.

The timing of the leak was clearly linked to David Miliband's call last week for Labour to break through its internal problems and turn its fire on the Conservatives.

His words carried the clear hint that if Brown could not pull the party together, Miliband was ready to take his place. The Foreign Secretary is now holidaying with his wife and their two sons on the Balearic island of Minorca.

Out of 22 cabinet ministers surveyed by the Mail on Sunday, 13 replied without prompting that they thought Gordon Brown should lead the party into the next election. They included David Miliband and his brother, the Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband. The most emphatic was Baroness Ashton, Leader of the House of Lords, who quickly replied: "Definitely."

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, the Chief Whip, Geoff Hoon, and the Culture Secretary Andy Burnham all refused to reply when first approached, but came back - evidently under instructions - to say "yes".

Six cabinet ministers - Ruth Kelly, Alan Johnson, Shaun Woodward, Paul Murphy, John Hutton and Hazel Blears, did not answer.

ANI