Mr Brown says that he will remain in office to oversee administrative roles, particularly in mediating talks to form a new government. His announcement in the late afternoon, according to the New York Times, stunned many in the country and within his own party.
According to the Times:
Quoting Downing Street insiders, British newspapers had reported that Mr. Brown was preparing a last-ditch effort to hang onto power and prolong his tenure as prime minister, which began when he succeeded Tony Blair in an internal Labour upheaval in 1997. That accorded with a matching determination not to cede power to the Conservatives among a group of loyal Labour cabinet ministers, who took to Britain’s airwaves at the weekend with the argument that the election had produced an “a progressive majority” against the Conservatives, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats winning 15.4-million votes against the Conservatives 10.6-million.
