UK News 28-10-2003 Rebels Given 48 Hour Ultimatum who: Iain Duncan Smith what: Issues ultimatum to MPs who seek to despose him where: LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: Iain Duncan Smith has given rebel Tory MPs 48 hours to launch their leadership challenge "by issuing a high stakes ultimatum to back him or sack him," reports The Financial Times. "The Tory leader called his critics` bluff by giving them until Wednesday evening to come up with the names of 25 MPs prepared to submit him to a no-confidence vote." "If any colleague considers me unfit to lead this party," he said yesterday, "I invite them to come and tell me why." "Setting an artificial deadline is risky as it offers the rebels the option to flout his authority, further undermining his leadership," says the BBC`s Nick Assinder. And The Independent`s deputy political editor Paul Waugh says that even if Mr Duncan Smith survives this week, "it will take only one more cock-up" to muster the necessary 25 names to force a vote. "The greatest irony to be found in the troubles weighing heavily upon Iain Duncan Smith is that his most ardent supporters are to be found on the Labour benches opposing him," reckons The Scotsman. "The Conservative leader is considered one of Labour`s greatest electoral assets. Not for nothing has Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, declined to chide him about his troubles when the pair clash at Prime Minister`s Questions." "A Britain in which the Tories lose their ability to return to government is now not only imaginable but may already have arrived," says The Guardian`s leader today, concluding that "a change of leadership would be good both for the party and for the country". [... more]

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