Brown hit by fresh infighting, criticism

By Phil Hazlewood AFP - Monday, May 12 03:59 pm

LONDON (AFP) - Embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown came under a fresh round of personal attacks from colleagues Monday, but his spokesman insisted he will not be ousted before the next general election.

Former welfare reform minister Frank Field overshadowed Brown's attempts to regain the political initiative by saying he would be "very surprised" if the prime minister were still in charge when Britons next go to the polls.

Asked about Field's criticisms, made in an interview with BBC World Service radio, Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam said: "The prime minister's general view on this is that he is not going to be distracted by this sort of stuff."

"What the prime minister is focusing on is the business of government and the big issues that are facing the country."

Pressed specifically whether Brown was confident of leading the Labour Party into the next election, which is due before May 2010 at the latest, he told reporters: "Of course he is."

Barely a year in office, Brown is seeking to move on from questions about his leadership style and personality, primarily with the announcement Wednesday of his government's draft legislative programme for the 2008-2009 parliament.

But he does so after a weekend in which the wife of his predecessor Tony Blair, former deputy prime minister John Prescott and Blair's Middle East envoy Michael Levy all criticised Brown as they publicised their memoirs.

Cherie Blair accused the former finance minister of pressurising her husband to hand over power sooner while Prescott branded him "frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly" who would either sulk or explode like a "volcano".

Levy, who as Labour's chief fundraiser was caught up in claims of party funding corruption that dogged Blair's final year in power, said it was inconceivable Brown did not know about the donations in question.

Field recalled that he had been on the receiving end of Brown's "tempers of indescribable nature. Shouts, rage".

"The awful fact that is coming across is that... the prime minister looks so unhappy inside his own body and it conveys the most dismal message to people," he added. "I think that's a mega problem for him and the government."

"I would be very surprised if he's still the leader of the Labour Party then and therefore leading us into the election campaign."

Field led plans to oppose the government's abolition of the 10 percent threshold on income tax, which was blamed in part for Labour's worst results in 40 years after local elections in England and Wales on May 1.

Abolishing the threshold effectively raised the tax burden for many of Britain's poorest families.

He has also raised doubts about the government's compensation package for those low earners affected by the change, warning of further repercussions if government reassurances were not forthcoming.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson defended Brown, dismissing the criticisms as unfounded and expressing frustrating that the political agenda was being dominated by personal attacks.

"I'm not a great Brown Fan Club leader but I respect him as a really, really decent, good, able politician," he told BBC radio. "Is he perfect? no he's not, nor is anyone else in the world.

"Some people see an opportunity to just put the knife into somebody they dislike."

An opinion poll last week suggested that support for Labour had slumped to 23 percent -- its lowest showing since records began in the 1930s and 26 points behind the Conservatives.

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