Labour backbenchers are kidding themselves if they think their fortunes will improve by sacking Gordon Brown.

It's understandable if MPs are panicking. After a good ten years of walking all over the Conservatives, they now face not just defeat at the next General Election but the prospect of a landslide victory for David Cameron's party, which Labour could take a decade to recover from.

And the analysis put forward by the likes of Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham, is correct. Labour has no answer to Mr Cameron's call for greater social justice and the importance of the family.

The government is good at talking about the economy and public services in abstract terms, but not so good at talking about people.

But this reflects the shallowness of the whole New Labour project, which began in the mid-1990s and defined Labour almost solely by what it was not - not the Tories and not an old-style, working class party of the left.

This lack of substance went unchallenged for years because of the weakness of the Conservatives.

But the Tories were bound, one day, to find a leader who knew how to talk to the nation and gain their respect. Now that day has come, and Labour is left floundering.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were the architects of the New Labour project.

But the rest of the party, including the vast majority of current Labour MPs, went along with it, and were happy to enjoy the fruits of office.

What Labour needs is a genuine and deep re-think about what it stands for and how to put its values into practice.

This may be unlikely to happen as long as Mr Brown remains leader, but there is no reason to think it would take place under a new leader either.

Rebel Labour MPs need to face up to the fact that it's not just the Prime Minister who is past his sell-by date - it's their entire party, as it exists today.

Simply sacking Mr Brown and replacing him with another politician mouthing New Labour platitudes will make their situation even more desperate, not better.

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