Gordon Brown backs Barack Obama for US president
Gordon Brown has backed Barack Obama in the race for the US presidency, praising the senator's ideas and family-friendly policies in an article that makes no mention of John McCain.
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
Last Updated: 10:24PM BST 09 Sep 2008
The move is a striking break with tradition. British Prime Ministers in the past have largely declined to disclose their favourite American candidates.
Writing in an article in the Parliamentary Monitor magazine, Mr Brown said: "In the electrifying US presidential campaign, it is the Democrats who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times.
"To help prevent people from losing their home, Barack Obama has proposed a Foreclosure Prevention Fund to increase emergency pre-foreclosure counselling, and help families facing repossession."
Mr Brown does not mention Mr Obama's opponent, the Republican candidate John McCain, at all in the article.
His clear show of support for Mr Obama has sparked fierce debate among American bloggers.
In the same article Mr Brown admits that he must "rise" to the challenge of being Prime Minister and pledged to "rethink" Labour policy.
In some of his most candid comments Mr Brown calls on his critics to give him time to address their concerns.
Although Cabinet colleagues have rallied behind him, many Labour MPs and trade union bosses remain deeply unhappy with Mr Brown's leadership, which has seen the party fall 20 points behind the Tories in opinion polls and lose a string of by-elections.
"Whether global or domestic, deep-seated or just fleeting, the pressures that we face in the short-term and the long-term have all changed since New Labour first came into Government," Mr Brown wrote.
"And so, the way we govern must change too. That is why in Manchester this year [at the Labour Party conference] it is time to adapt and rethink New Labour policy.''
He added: "What I ask of our country, our Government, and our party, cannot be done without leadership. So, at conference in Manchester and in the weeks that follow, I will set out how I - and our party, and our government, and our country - must rise to conquer those challenges and to ensure fairness for all.''
The Prime Minister also acknowledged that improvements in social mobility under Labour had not matched expectations and had to be stepped up.
"We need to be honest with ourselves: while poverty has been reduced and the rise in inequality halted, social mobility has not improved in Britain as we would have wanted,'' he said.
The comments were seized upon by the Conservatives who said they were an admission that the Prime Minister has run out of ideas. Mr Brown decided not to call a snap election this time last year saying that he needed more time to set out his vision for the country.
Chris Grayling, a shadow Cabinet minister, said: "Gordon Brown had 10 years to think about what he was going to do when he became Prime Minister but now he is there he has changed his mind about what to do already.
"After months of dithering, raising taxes on Britain's poorest families and losing half the nation's personal data we have just about the weakest Prime Minister in history. He is right that Britain needs a change, but it is clear that neither he nor Labour can provide it."
Meanwhile, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, used a speech to the TUC annual congress in Brighton to attack excessive City bonuses and urged the unions not to demand inflation-busting pay increases.
He said: "It would be so damaging for us to allow inflation to become entrenched, as it did in the past. That's why, in the private and public sectors, pay rises must be consistent with our inflation target.
"Otherwise every penny in pay rises will be very quickly swallowed up by higher prices. And we all remember the job losses that followed in the past once inflation takes a grip."
He criticised "excessive" City bonuses which he said may encourage traders to take unnecessary risks - "especially when people seem to get money for failing not succeeding…that's got to change".
He also appeared to rule out a windfall tax on utility companies but pledged to increase Government borrowing to help fund tax cuts or state handouts during the economic downturn.
