June 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s fight for political survival may have left him too weak to push through his policy agenda.

Even with a 62-seat majority in the 646-seat House of Commons, Brown’s plans to sell a stake in the post office, introduce a national identification-card system, overhaul banking regulations, and renew nuclear defenses are vulnerable.

“When you’ve got a strong prime minister, the machinery works well,” said Jonathan Hill, 48, who was chief political strategist for John Major from 1992 to 1994 while he governed with a divided party. “When you don’t, and I saw this happen, the departments push back. Big contentious stuff gets shelved. You do piffling stuff, and you go through the motions.”

Even after putting down a Labour rebellion this week, Brown, 58, may be unable to gain the initiative because of divisions in his own party, further weakening him before elections he must call by June. Yesterday, he had to fight off an opposition motion to prod him to call a vote immediately.

“This is Gordon Brown’s lame duck year,” said Anthony Seldon, who wrote a biography of Tony Blair, Brown’s predecessor, and is working on one about the current premier. “Even if he was in a personally strong place it would be difficult for him to do very much.”

While Brown yesterday proposed a code of conduct for lawmakers and the establishment of a written constitution, his allies may be reluctant to push legislation that angers core supporters and the unions that finance Labour.

Royal Mail

One flash point is the Postal Services Bill, which would partly privatize Royal Mail Group Plc. TNT NV of the Netherlands has expressed interest in the 360-year-old service that generates annual revenue of 8 billion pounds ($13 billion).

The government hasn’t yet announced when the House of Commons will consider and vote on the legislation, which was introduced on May 21. Normally, lawmakers vote on a bill about two weeks after it’s introduced. The agenda stretching to June 25 doesn’t include the bill.

“Gordon Brown has successfully seen off a coup, but his real challenge will be over the proposed privatization of Royal Mail,” said Diane Abbott, a Labour lawmaker. “He doesn’t have the votes to get it through. If he attempts and loses, then he would face a vote of confidence on the floor of the house.”

Brown last week named a new Cabinet, reasserting his authority after six ministers quit, one calling for him to step down. Dissidents said he wouldn’t be able to lead the party to victory in the next election. Labour finished third in European Parliament elections June 4.

Welfare Bill

A Welfare Reform Bill currently on its way through Parliament has drawn fire from Labour lawmakers who object to provisions including a clause that the unemployed may have to undergo drug tests to get jobless benefits.

“Degrading poor people in the middle of a recession is no way for Labour to rediscover its soul or its vote,” said Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, a civil-liberties lobby group.

With the national debt set to more than double to 1.37 trillion pounds in 2014 amid the worst recession since World War II, Brown is under pressure to curb expensive projects and to channel the savings to health, education and welfare.

Projects on the chopping block may include plans for national identity cards, which the government estimates will cost 5 billion pounds. Armonk, New York-based International Business Machines Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. of Falls Church, Virginia, won the program’s first contracts in April, worth 650 million pounds.

Some Labour lawmakers also want to stop replacement of Trident nuclear-missile submarines, a 70 billion pound project for which London-based BAE Systems Plc is the lead contractor.

Banking Rules

On banking rules, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling wants to tighten supervision after the Financial Services Authority failed to prevent a run on Northern Rock Plc in 2007.

While all parties support the clampdown, each has different ideas about a new system. Conservatives want the Bank of England to have more authority in taking over troubled banks. The government has talked mainly about strengthening the FSA, which Labour established 1997.

A Cabinet meeting tomorrow will address “plans for building a better Britain” to be followed by a series of announcements of initiatives, Brown’s spokesman Michael Ellam said.

Already, this year’s legislative agenda, with 15 bills, is the smallest in at least five years. Brown had 24 bills in his first year in office in 2007, and Blair scheduled 50 in 2005 after the last election.

“The notion of Brown lining up a great plank of new proposals would be a mistake,” said Ivor Gaber, Professor of political campaigning and reporting at City University, London, who said that the current legislative program is a “thin program of little bills.”

“What the country is looking for is bullet points,” he said. “He needs a vision and he needs to articulate and deliver that vision.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net; Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 10, 2009 20:01 EDT