YESTERDAY GORDON Brown rolled out the Winston Churchill defence. Casting himself in the light of one who regularly tops “best-loved PM” polls, the epitome of the bulldog spirit, is the best way to shake off claims he is a bully. “Not a bully”, Mr Brown insisted, “a hard taskmaster”.
“You don’t solve a world recession by being a shrinking violet,” he told ITV. Indeed, Churchill had a worse temper: “Winston Churchill, when he was in the ministry of defence, battered a cabinet. You’ve still got the mark there. I’m not like that.”
There are signs the general public is not yet too worried about the emerging picture of their prime minister’s working methods. Specifically, the claims in a book by journalist Andrew Rawnsley that No 10 staff have felt intimidated by Mr Brown’s temper tantrums and bouts of persecution mania. More than 10 polls in the last month have reported a shrinking Conservative lead, after reports that the British economy came out of recession in 2009’s final quarter. An ICM poll in Tuesday’s Guardian gave the Tories only a seven-point lead, down from 11 in January, making a hung parliament now the most likely outcome of an election that must be held by June.
Initial flat denials by Brown acolytes have given way to a more nuanced defence along the lines of “he’s only human” or “you’d expect him to be tough”. Responding to claims the bullying had been so bad that head of the civil service Gus O’Donnell had been forced to warn Mr Brown formally, the former yesterday told a Commons committee, à la Sir Humphrey Appleby: “I never talked to the prime minister about his behaviour in relation to bullying No 10 staff, but of course I talk to the prime minister about how to get the best out of his civil servants”.
Just as potentially damaging have been claims that Mr Brown’s No 10 is as prone to spinning against its own chancellor as was Mr Blair’s. Alistair Darling yesterday confirmed he was briefed against viciously – “the forces of hell were unleashed” – after warning the country faced the worst recession in 60 years. Had the spin come from No 10? “Not just them”, he said, loyally making clear – however implausibly – that he was referring to aides rather than Mr Brown personally.
Such stories will inevitably be grist to the mill in an election likely to be dominated by the issue of character – the irascible but experienced Brown against the charming, neophyte David Cameron. But who will benefit from all the mud flung is by no means clear.