British Prime Minister Gordon Brown resigned with a brief, emotional statement on Tuesday, ending 13 years of the Labour Party government and paving the way for Conservative David Cameron to become the country’s next leader.
Standing outside 10 Downing St. alongside his wife, Sarah, Brown announced he would travel to see Queen Elizabeth II to resign — allowing Cameron to take office with the expected support of Nick Clegg, leader of the third-placed Liberal Democrats.
“I have informed the queen’s private secretary that it is my intention to tender my resignation to the queen,” said Brown. He said he would ask the monarch to invite Cameron to form a government and wished the new leader well.
Brown then walked hand-in-hand with his wife and young sons John and Fraser down Downing Street, where a car waited to take him to the palace.
Brown’s resignation ends five days of uncertainty after last week’s general election left the country with no clear winner. Britain’s Conservatives won the most seats but fell short of a majority, forcing them and the Labour Party to woo the Liberal Democrats.
Negotiators for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats met for several hours today, but emerged without confirming whether a deal had been struck. Conservative deputy chief William Hague said only that the atmosphere had been “positive.”
Brown’s resignation follows five days of sometimes tense talks following the country’s election, which produced no outright winner. It left Britain with its first hung Parliament since 1974, which no one party won a majority of seats in the House of Commons.
Cameron, 43, will become the youngest British leader in nearly two centuries.
Brown’s departure follows three successive election victories for his center-left Labour Party, all of which were won by his predecessor Tony Blair, who ousted the Conservatives in 1997.
[Associated Press]
better, may be these young guys will do better than the old folks. come and visit Obama and please agree to meet your enemies like Mugabe please. finally change the immigration law and be lenient to foreigners. all the best young man.
Mr Brown, to hell with you. you were too arrogant as the Britain was all yours. bye bye
#1 I do not agree with you on some points. I hope or I wish you listened to David Cameron during the debates. Cameron’s views on Britain’s foreign policy and the policy on immigration are very tough. Entry into Britain will be tougher than ever before even for EU citizens, David does not support much about US-British relations, EU-British relations. Gordon was more open to foreign relations and had a better approach to immigration than what David has proposed to do. Go to the debate files and look at the debates, you will be in a better position to asses the new PM.
This is good for Britain and the people who live there. Let young people lead and we will wait for results. This should come in for RB as an example. He is old, let him leave and give room to the young people.So we have a young leader here in the US, now Britain has followed, Zambia should be next.
#3 you mean RB resigning??? He could, if he had “integrity”. How can he resign when he has increased salaries for civil servants by 15% and a week later he increases fuel prices by 13%?????
Zambians let us learn to start trusting young ones in leadership. Time for old forks is long gone.
It’s time for us Zambians to retire the old political dinosaurs like Sata & RB and vote for young leaders!!! Look at the US, Russia and now Britain and all their leaders are in the forties.
ZEd patriot, yeah but you also have Japan, China , Germany, Italy where the leaders are much older. In my view age alone should not be a determinant. The main factor should be the ability to adress the present problems a nation is facing
This shows that democracy is for civilized countries.
Africa is far from civilized and this is why you hear “rigging, rigging, how can Vubwi collect 15,000 votes when it only has 13,000 voters!” only to be ashamed when ECZ official results show 4900 votes collected!
There is no sign of civilization in African politics or politicians.
Well done Cameron (PM) and Clegg (DPM). Congratulations Cameron for being the youngest (43 years old) PM in the last two centuries.
Please show Zambia how democracy works in the interest of the people as you do it in the civilized world. Help them to understand that no progress will come to Zambia when you replace educated leadership with a grade 3 drop out just because you want “change for the sake of change and not for the betterment of…
Thoze men/women sitting on that money-spinning 5-year old NCC would do well endorse lawz that provide for a smooth change of government az exhibited Britain
Thoze men/women sitting on the money-spinning five year old NCC would do well to adopt lawz that ensure a smooth, civil and mature change of government az exhibited by the British.
fellow zambians in the UK living anonomously, just start thinking of packing your bags and get travel document to go home. immigrants will be hit hard by this camron.
This is good news as I once thought that Gordon Brown was just a rubber stamp of Tony Blair – This is interesting to Zambia.
This should have been a front story in ‘The Post’ , Times of Zambia and Daily Mail not just insults. Please tell us what is news of the day not just a ‘fine’ insult that undermines peace and corrupts violence!
#11 cant agree with you more
#11 and #13 true it will be very tough it is go back to motherland
# 1, Mr Brown who you insult was very good to immigrants.Nearly all immigrants like myself voted for labour.David Cameron and his party are anti-immigration meaning it will be very tough for people wanting to come and visit or stay here.All non- EU citizens will surely miss Gordon Brown.I feel sorry for Zambians without proper papers staying here,you are facing deportation now!!
#11 and #13, you guys are speaking the truth, killa Cam, oops David Cam’ron, yaba, David Cameron is going to be a problem, let’s just hope that he will be lenient to immigrants.I hope our politicians in zambia are taking notes on how to conduct themselves during elections and campaigns, look at how nick clegg, david and gordon handled themselves, i never heard anyone of them disclose what diseases they are carrying and there was no mufumbwe kind of violence.Sondashi, i hope that you are still praying for a better zambia
There are some very interesting views on this topic regarding what immigrants are to expect from the Cameron’s administration. The fact is that immigrants, regardless of where they are from, EU or otherwise will be handled according to their status, i.e. those with fake documents and dodgy professions have everything to worry about but those with genuine visas ( Indefinite stay) and/or British citizenship have nothing to worry about. It is a fact that those that have been playing hide and seek will miss Gordon Brown. The Labour party has always been very popular with immigrants.
Another member of the illuminati for PM.The False Left-Right Paradigm and the Deception of the British People.
:)>-
That BNP leader wanted to offer all immigrants who want to go back home £50k. I wish he had won.
Last week on May 6, we went to the polls here in Great Britain..the verdict has been passed. Sad to see Mr Brown go…there were a lot of things I admired him for…his work ethic was quite good too. Neverthelss, we now have Mr Cameron…a man with a new vision for this great country…I pray that he does an excellent job of his office & move this nation forward. I hope too that Zambian leaders & politicians will learn afew more lessons of how politics & democracy (from the British perspective) should be given room to work together without fights or insults.
#21, Zambian politicians have failed to learn decent governance even after 45 years of independence, all they do is claim that they are democrats. Currently they are busy calling each other names and revealing each others HIV status and at the end of what should have been a busy day at the office serving the nation, they go home to their families and say, ‘Today I was very busy at work’.