Premiership of Gordon Brown do so. The election campaign saw the UK's first televised debates between the leaders of the three main parties. While Cameron and Clegg were generally perceived to have performed well in these, Brown was perceived to have done less well. Brown also attracted criticism from the media after privately describing a 65-year-old pensioner as a "bigoted woman" after she stated that entitled people were not receiving benefits because non-entitled people are receiving them. She also expressed her displeasure at immigration from Eastern Europe. His remarkssaid on 28 April whilst in a car with his staffwere picked up by a Sky
Gordon Brown backbenchers from (pre-1974) Lancashire urged him to step down and a third questioned his chances of holding on to the Labour Party leadership. Several MPs argued that if Brown did not recover in the polls by early 2009, he should call for a leadership contest. However, certain prominent MPs, such as Jacqui Smith and Bill Rammell, suggested that Brown was the right person to lead Britain through its economic crisis. In the Autumn, Siobhain McDonagh, a MP and junior government whip, who during her time in office had never voted against the government, spoke of the need for discussion over