British Prime Minister Gordon Brown battled desperately to keep his job, ignoring demands to quit amid a flurry of Cabinet resignations and a swelling rebellion in the ranks of his Labour party.

Brown, who waited impatiently for a decade to inherit his job from Tony Blair, promoted loyalists to Cabinet posts yesterday in a shake-up of his team aimed at restoring his credibility. It follows a scandal over lawmakers' expenses and catastrophic results in local elections.

His actions failed to quell a mood of dissent among rank-and-file legislators, or stem a procession of walkouts by once-loyal colleagues. Caroline Flint quit her post as Europe minister, one of 10 ministers to resign out of 23, and accused Brown of keeping her as "female window dressing" in a male-dominated Cabinet.