KEVIN Rudd strategist Bruce Hawker has been forced to stand down from working on Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's re-election campaign.

JULIA Gillard says she will go to the backbench if she loses a Monday leadership vote, and would not recontest the prime ministership.

KEVIN Rudd has made an impassioned pitch to Labor MPs to be reinstated as prime minister, talking up his “formidable'' achievements.