Another storm on horizon for Brown

By Terry Stiastny BBC News

After the tempests of the past few days there is a strange, and perhaps deceptive, period of calm in politics, but another storm is brewing on the horizon - Sunday's European election results.

Gordon Brown has formed a Cabinet, with many familiar faces in the same jobs.

Brown told reporters he would fight on

Lord Mandelson has a new and elevated title, that of First Secretary of State - one that has often gone alongside that of Deputy Prime Minister in the past.

Although the resignations of James Purnell and Caroline Flint were wounding, others leaving the government were more supportive.

But the former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers - no ally of the prime minister's - said that on Monday, Labour MPs would consider whether they thought Gordon Brown was a winner or a loser.

It was a loaded statement, the implication being that after the European election results, opinion might tend towards the latter.

Even loyal and newly-promoted Cabinet ministers like Ben Bradshaw admit that Labour's local election results were "terrible", but loyalists want to calm the impression of Westminster squabbling.

Tory ambitions

Losing so many councillors will have an impact on Labour's grassroots.

Some backbenchers, like Tony Wright, have heard the message from local Labour activists to "just stop it". Westminster politicians, he was told, should stop the infighting.

But the question is whether losing hundreds of councillors could also mean that there are fewer people on whom Labour can rely to knock on doors come a general election.

The Conservatives are also growing more ambitious about the scope of the Westminster seats they believe they can win.

Several of the Labour MPs who will return to Westminster on Monday have already expressed the desire to rebel

As Labour MPs work through the figures from the election results they will start to make calculations about what it means for their own futures.

Labour's share of the vote at 23% was lower than the Liberal Democrats at 28% and far behind the Conservatives on 38%, although the Tories might have hoped for better.

The European election results are widely predicted to be worse for Labour.

Several of the Labour MPs who will return to Westminster on Monday have already expressed the desire to rebel.

What we don't know is whether they will have the critical mass and the level of organisation to mount a leadership challenge.

Further obstacles lie ahead. Gordon Brown already knows he will have to face two by-elections in the near future.

One is in Glasgow, after Speaker Michael Martin's resignation, and a second is in Norfolk after Ian Gibson decided to step down with immediate effect, unhappy at the way he had been treated over expenses.

Both of those will be signals for others at Westminster of the way the political wind is blowing.

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