LONDON, England - June 4, 2009 - Britain's Labor government - battered by weeks of disclosures of lawmakers using taxpayers' money for everything from X-rated movies to toilet seats - is teetering on the verge of collapse today after four Cabinet ministers quit.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is under mounting pressure either to resign or call national elections that he would almost certainly lose.
The latest blow came yesterday, when Helen Blears, Minister for Communities, quit in a terse letter to Brown, who had denounced her "unacceptable" financial dealings.
Blears, one of the female officials known as "Blair's Babes" in the Tony Blair regime, had been under fire since it was revealed she used her expense allowance to charge taxpayers $2,800 for a bed and TV and $600 a month in groceries.
Members of Parliament from Brown's own party were also being asked to sign a letter calling on him to quit as prime minister and Labor leader, according to The Times of London, which said up to 75 members might do so.
"We believe that in the current political situation, you can best serve the interests of the Labor Party by stepping down," the letter reads in part.
British Cabinet ministers, as well as members of Parliament, enjoy broad powers to bill the government for personal expenses and until now, those costs have been confidential.