Some call him "the smooth assassin," others a man of honor. There's some truth to both. With his resignation, Britain's 39-year-old Work and Pensioners Secretary James Purnell has delivered his boss Gordon Brown a further stab in the back. And this one could prove fatal.

The Labour Party is watching a "half killed Prime Minister staggering along with knives in his back," as Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee mercilessly put it. In the celebratory words of the Sun: "Finally a cabinet minister has said what the rest of them are thinking." And the London Times praised Purnell who, "in this single act," has become "one of the most significant of the talented Labour politicians of his generation." From now on, "he will always be the man who dared."

Purnell is the third minister to step down from Brown's government in the last three days. Before him were interior minister Jacqui Smith and communities minister Hazel Blears. Unlike the two women, who were both bound up in the expenses scandal, Purnell was not on Brown's hit list. That makes his resignation all the more dangerous for Brown, who can no longer claim the expenses scandal is the sole reason for the exodus of ministers. He is now forced to admit that his power is under attack.

Shock Waves

Brown had to respond quickly. To prevent a chain reaction, he decided on Friday to reshuffle the cabinet -- a move that also prompted the resignation of Friday of the prime minister's transport secretary, Geoff Hoon. Originally Brown had wanted to wait until Monday to distract from the results of the elections for the European Parliament, but Purnell's surprise coup left him no choice.

The smart politician with the long sideburns waited until 10 p.m. on Thursday evening, when the polling stations closed, before striking. In a letter to Brown, he announced his resignation and called on Brown to step down as the head of the Labour Party and government in order to give his party a better chance in the next elections. Purnell wrote that the longer Brown stays in office, the greater the chance of a conservative victory. "That would be disastrous for our country."

The shock waves were huge. Downing Street was peeved that the minister had sent the letter to the media before informing the prime minister. The surprise was perfect. Purnell hadn't told anyone in his own party, knowing that if the prime minister's office caught wind of his plans, it would have cranked up its spin machine and tried to discredit him.

Who's Next?

Thus, the dissident could present himself to the media as a man of conviction. Purnell wrote in his letter that he did what he did for the sake of his party. But it's not entirely believable: Perfectly-timed treason has been known to catapult the odd politician to power. And it wouldn't be the first time that Purnell has shown good political instinct. During his studies at Oxford, he started to work in the office of an opposition politician by the name of Tony Blair, and from there, he climbed quickly. He's sat in the lower house for eight years, and has held two ministerial offices. He emphasizes that his resignation is not for personal gain and that he's not interested in leading the party. In so doing, he passes the ball slyly to his cabinet colleagues.

Now the salient question: who's next? Purnell alone isn't enough to force the combative Prime Minister to resign. The labour minister is no heavyweight in the cabinet. He can only take the first step.

As in the days past, the other cabinet members have hesitated. While Defense Secretary John Hutton also announced his resignation on Friday, he insisted that it wasn't intended as an attack on the prime minister. He told the BBC that he stands solid behind Brown. He had decided long ago to leave the political arena and not to campaign in the next parliamentary elections. The cabinet shuffle was the right time to step down.

Hutton distanced himself from Purnell, as did Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who called Purnell's act a mistake. He's a good friend, but he's not going to resign. One minister after the next positioned himself behind Brown on Friday. It almost looked as though Purnell had brought the cabinet closer together.

Miliband's response was a blow to the revolutionary, who like Purnell is considered one of the party's young rising stars. But the foreign secretary apparently had bad memories of last year, when he was already touted as a challenger to Brown -- before the coup was called off.

Miliband is now one of the beneficiaries of Purnell's resignation. In the reshuffle that Brown carried out on Friday behind closed doors, he may, according to media reports, be allowed to remain in his office, just like Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling.

Brown cannot risk any more resignations, so the two men got what they wanted. In actual fact, Brown wanted to move Darling from the Treasury. The Foreign Office was being mooted as a consolation prize. However Darling implied that he would rather leave than allow himself to be moved around.

So the reshuffle was more an emergency operation that the radical reconstruction which Brown had envisioned. Instead of a new team, it will be the same old faces peering out of the cabinet photo.

A "reinvigorated cabinet"?

Health Secretary Alan Johnson was also rewarded for his recent support of Brown, even though he is seen as the hot favorite to replace the prime minister in the event of a palace coup. According to the BBC, Johnson will be the new home secretary. In a PR coup, Brown has enlisted the services of the entrepreneur Alan Sugar, who presents the popular TV show "The Apprentice," as an unpaid economic adviser with the title of "enterprise czar."

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, who has gone in the last year from being a fierce opponent of Brown to one of his most loyal allies, was confident that the reshuffle would put an end to the discussions about Brown. The world would see a "reinvigorated cabinet" that stands behind the prime minister, he said. "Brown is the man at the helm. That's where he will stay." Now the government needs to focus once again on politics, he said.

Brown is determined to sit out the rebellion. His argument is that a second change in the Labour leader during the current legislative period, after the departure of Tony Blair in 2007, would immediately prompt new elections. And that, given the current polls, would not be in the best interests of the Labour Party. Therefore it is safer to continue with him as leader.