How can Brown limp on after such a total collapse of Government?

For weeks, they behaved like donkeys, stubbornly clinging to office or their seat. Now they are like lemmings, such is the rush to stand down or resign.

In a few dizzying hours, Children's Minister Beverly Hughes revealed she wanted to leave the Government for 'personal and family reasons', making it her second resignation - the first time she quit was over the visas for Romanian one-legged roofers scandal, five years ago.

jacqui smith

Jacqui Smith arrives for Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. She was the fourth Labour MP to resign in one day

David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, said he was standing down after uproar over his expenses claims of almost £13,000 towards a mortgage that did not exist.

He had already been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party and faced the humiliation of being de-selected as a candidate after a forthcoming 'star chamber'  inquiry.

And Patricia Hewitt, the arch-Blairite ex-Health Secretary announced she will quit as an MP at the next election, to take up what is doubtless a lucrative new career in the pharmaceuticals industry.

Now, to that list, we can add Jacqui Smith, who will cease to be Home Secretary after Friday's expected re-shuffle.

Miss Smith, humiliated by the revelation her husband charged porn to the taxpayer, and facing an inquiry into claiming her sister's spare bedroom was her main home, had quite simply had enough - though, curiously, she does plan to defend her wafer-thin majority in Redditch at the next election.

Are there any left? Certainly, others may well follow, with Alistair Darling - forced to apologise for, and pay back, hundreds of pounds he wrongly claimed on his expenses - at the front of the queue.

Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon is also under pressure after being forced to issue an apology and pay back money after admitting he had 'accidentally' over-claimed £384.

Labour backbencher Jim Devine is facing de-selection after being referred to the party's star chamber over allegations that he submitted receipts from a firm that may not have existed.

But can this really continue?

As Conservative MP Ben Wallace, who reported Jacqui Smith to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over her expenses, opined: 'What I think is amazing is the total collapse of management of Government, the fact that some people are jumping ship without even informing the Prime Minister, it seems.

'It is just falling apart. Is the Prime Minister in control or not, people are going to be asking.'

If Gordon Brown is to take one lesson from today, it should be that his Government - with or without a major reshuffle - cannot possibly limp on for another year.

Britain is facing the worst economic crisis for 100 years, requiring strong leadership and focussed minds. That is what the country must have.

What it cannot afford is the paralysis of week upon week of ministers falling over themselves to resign before they are pushed, or stepping down after being exposed as expense cheats.

Mr Brown claims to have a strong conscience. He is also known to care about how history will perceive him.

By calling a General Election now he can do the right thing for the country, if not himself. Even his most fierce critics, given time, may even come to respect him for it.

Sadly, nobody should hold their breath.

JAMES SLACK: How can Brown limp on after such a total collapse of Government?