Criticism of John Prescott was growing yesterday with Labour backbenchers and peers saying his removal as deputy prime minister was needed for the Labour party to revive its fortunes and reconnect with voters.
Support for the deputy prime minister was further undermined after a Sunday newspaper published pictures of Mr Prescott playing croquet on the lawns of Dorneywood, the ministerial residence in Buckinghamshire, when he was technically in charge of the government during Tony Blair's trip to Washington last week.
Mr Prescott is also in charge this week while the prime minister takes a half-term holiday in Italy.
The deputy prime minister was stripped of his Whitehall department in the recent reshuffle after revelations that he had an affair with his secretary added to a string of embarrassments facing the prime minister.
But Mr Blair has since been criticised for allowing him to remain as second-in-command in the government and the Labour party, and for allowing him to retain his £133,000-a-year ministerial salary and use of two grace-and-favour homes.
Downing Street yesterday sought to quash speculation about Mr Prescott's job, saying that he had the prime minister's "absolute confidence".
As a key broker between Mr Blair and Gordon Brown, the chancellor, neither will want to see him replaced as deputy before a leadership election.
But Geoff Mulgan, Mr Blair's former head of policy, said serious talk of a campaign for the deputy leadership was growing and that this could be healthy for the party.
"The real problem for him with these photos is that no one knows quite what his job is any more and this suggests he hasn't got enough to do. He may be running out of his nine lives," he told Sky News.
Harriet Harman, the constitutional affairs minister named as a potential candidate to replace Mr Prescott, said it would be better if Labour had two deputy leaders, one of whom needs to be a woman. "Female support was so important in helping us get into government and keeping us in government," Ms Harman said. "[It's important] that we don't see it ebb away with this shallow attempt by David Cameron to make warm-word speeches which in practice will make no difference to women's lives.''
Baroness Kennedy, the Labour peer and lawyer, added that Mr Prescott's affair had undermined his position. "There is an undermining of any kind of status that he might have within the party and I think people feel that a move on might be timely," she said.
Denis MacShane, former Europe minister, said he was not aware of a plot to oust Mr Prescott but he was not happy about the way the affair had been handled: "We need to renew our Labour party from the very top to the very bottom and nobody's job, nobody's policy is protected. Read into that what you will."
