Brown faces Cameron in Commons duel

On the eve of Euro and local elections at which Labour is expected to suffer a mauling at the hands of angry voters, he will face Tory leader David Cameron across the despatch box at question time.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's was the highest profile name among a clutch of Labour figures to announce they would quit, threatening to derail Mr Brown's plans for a post-poll relaunch.

News of her decision came before another senior minister's expenses claims - including £6,000 of work on his second home and a £2,225 sofa unit - were revealed by The Daily Telegraph.

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth defended his use of taxpayer-funded allowances, insisting he had remained within "the spirit and the letter" of Commons rules. "The problem is, of course, that the rules were not good rules. We now must act to change this," he said.

The Prime Minister also took a pummelling from an editorial in the Guardian calling for the Labour Party to "cut him loose". This will come as another blow to Mr Brown because the paper's political allegiance is seen as being traditionally left-of-centre.

And the party leadership faced angry accusations of operating a "kangaroo court" after Norwich North MP Ian Gibson was banned from defending his seat by an internal panel examining controversial claims.

Mr Gibson was the only one of four MPs formally barred from standing again as Labour candidates by the National Executive Committee's "star chamber" not to have already announced he would quit. But the president of his local party launched a scathing attack on the panel, accusing it of ignoring local support for the MP, who sold his taxpayer-subsidised flat to his daughter at a cut price.

David Chaytor (Bury North) and Elliot Morley (Scunthorpe), who both claimed thousands of pounds for interest on non-existent mortgages and Margaret Moran, who claimed £22,500 for treating dry rot at a home 100 miles from her Luton South constituency, were the others formally stripped of their nominations. None of the four were expelled from the Labour Party or had the whip removed.

Another Labour backbencher, Jim Devine, is also to have his claim reviewed by the panel after allegations that he submitted receipts from a firm that may not have existed.