Left will demand change after Labour loses 400 seats

With more than 400 council seats lost in Labour's worst local election results for decades, the left-wing backlash against the New Labour project has begun in earnest. The pressure on Brown to change direction will be led by John McDonnell, chairman of the Campaign Group - though he is not going to run against Brown for the leadership.

McDonnell privately discussed with colleagues on the left the possibility of running against the PM, but decided it would be counter-productive. "We couldn't get the numbers to get on the ballot form last time so it's not worth it," said one of his allies, referring to McDonnell's aborted attempt to run against Brown when Blair announced his departure last year. "Instead, John will be leading the campaign for a change of direction."

McDonnell was planning to be in Oslo today but cancelled to prepare for battle. The calls for Brown to drop the New Labour project could start as early as Tuesday with the regular meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The lefties tend not to turn up at PLP meetings. But with "controlled panic" among Labour MPs, it is being seen as an important event in the calender after Black Friday.

The rumbles of discontent on the Left started well before Thursday's disastrous polls, with anger over the doubling of income tax on the lowest paid, a revolt by 38 Labour MPs - the biggest of Brown's premiership - on renewable energy, and a Commons motion tabled by Ian Gibson against the development of NHS polyclinics which the Tories claim will lead to more than 1,000 GPs' surgeries being closed.

Meanwhile, Brown is planning to play the role of 'The Pilot', steering Britain through the economic storms. Policy wonk Matthew Taylor, a former Blair adviser on strategy inside Number Ten, said on the BBC Today programme that Brown should now focus entirely on the economy and leave the other issues to his Cabinet ministers.

The Mole hears that is indeed what Brown plans to do. It will start next week with a Brown speech setting out some of the highlights for the forthcoming draft Queen's Speech, including extra help for first-time buyers with shared equity housing.

But if Boris Johnson beats Ken Livingstone in the London mayoral race – and the word ahead of tonight's official result is that Boris has won it for the Tories - that is going to look pretty pathetic.

It looks as though the Blairite coalition is now falling apart and Brown will have to spend the next 12 months trying to hold his Labour Party together. As the Mole predicted: it's civil war.

THE MOLE: BLACK FRIDAY

FIRST POSTED MAY 2, 2008