British prime minister Gordon Brown, fighting to reassert his authority after weeks of dire poll ratings and rebellion within his ruling party, says he has no intention of quitting before an election due within a year.
Speaking to a Sunday newspaper, Mr Brown said he would stay on as prime minister because he wanted to help Britons through the recession, not out of any wish to hang on to the “trappings of power”.
“I am just getting on with the job,” he told the News of the World. “It is because of my purpose in politics that I am determined to lead Labour to the next general election. We must and will win.”
Mr Brown trails the Conservatives by up to 20 per cent in the polls, with less than a year before the next parliamentary election. In a separate interview on Saturday, Mr Brown said he “could walk away from all this tomorrow”.
One of his senior ministers said Mr Brown did not mean to suggest he wanted to give up power, rather he was not interested in the perks of the job such as a lavish country house.
“Of course the prime minister is staying,” Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said. “He will lead the Labour Party through to the . . . general election which I assume will be next year. Parliamentary elections are due by June 2010.
One commentator said the prime minister had deliberately adopted a softer tone in the Guardian interview to project “a more human image” after criticism that he is too wooden and unemotional for some voters.
Mr Brown spoke openly about his young children, his sleeping habits and the constant demands of a 24-hour media, saying: “it’s a strange life, really”.
“He has been regarded as a bit robotic,” his biographer Francis Beckett told the BBC.
“What did surprise me was that he was prepared to be as open as he is.” – (Reuters)