Benn says new direction needed in Labour

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to stay on despite calls for a general election following a flurry of Cabinet resignations and an unsigned letter circulating amidst his party that urged the premier to quit 'to best serve his country'.

Benn told Press TV in a Phone interview Saturday that the question was not whether the Labour Party forced Brown out of office, since there was no evidence in the change in the party's course of action.

The mishandling of economic crisis and subsequent unemployment caused by the economic policies of former premier Blair and Brown were the main cause of the government's fall from grace, Benn said and numerated a few other reasons.

"People in Britain do not want troops in Afghanistan. Why are we there? They do not want Britain to spend 78 billion pounds on a new generation of nuclear weapons. They do not want to see their public services privatized."

Benn also rejected media representations of the crisis in London as 'if it were a conflict between Mr. Brown and people who want his job.'

"We were promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty which will set up the European Union as sort of supernatural state, and we didn't have a referendum," added the former parliamentarian who relinquished his title under the Peerage Act 1963 to sit in the House of Commons.

Benn also predicted the results of the European elections released on Sunday would harbor further disappointment for Labour, which suffered tragically in Thursday's local election after being routed by opposition Conservative party.

On Friday, Brown reshuffled his cabinet in a desperate attempt to secure the loyalty of ministers after 10 Cabinet members walked out of his government.

According to the results of the local elections in England -- 33 out of 34 councils-- the Conservatives gained 230 seats and Labour lost 272 heading for third place in the local elections.