Gordon 'puts his all into meeting'
Gordon Brown 'dedicated all his heart' to making a substantial contribution to the G20 summit, Russia's president said yesterday. In his only public appearance on his trip to Britain, Dmitry Medvedev praised the organization of the meeting, saying it enabled 'full-fledge and comprehensive work'. 'I feel Gordon has dedicated all his heart to that,' he told the London School of Economics. Mr Medvedev called for greater european security and criticized Nato.
3rd April 2009 - by Metro - 3 Comments - Add Comment
Brown: We can't tolerate expenses mistakes
The prime minister yesterday issued a stark warning about Commons allowances , saying: 'You cannot condone mistakes on expenses'.
Home secretary Jacqui Smith, who has been under fire since it emerged her husband claimed expenses for buying two pornographic films, was right to apologise, Mr Brown said.
In an exclusive interview, he said: 'All of us have a responsibility. It is right when a mistake is made that people sort them out and apologise and correct them.
'The vast majority of people are in public service to serve the public. They don't want and I don't want what they are doing to be clouded by issues of expenses and allowences.
'You cannot c... 
Read More
31st March 2009 - by J. Higginson - 3 Comments - Add Comment
Brown's big idea 'could bankrupt us'
Downing St. reacted angrily last night after Bank of England governor Mervyn King told MPs the Britain was broke.
There was a stern response after Mr King explained the country, already nearly £2trillion in debt, could not afford a further stimulus package.
The comments were a blow to Gordon Brown's bid to sell a global fiscal stimulus to world leaders at next week;s G20 summit in London.
The prime minister's spokesman responded: 'we have been clear the we would do whatever it takes to see us through the global downturn.'
He also pointed out Mr King was supposed to be explaining why he had failed to keep the inflation targets.
The Consu... Read More
25th March 2009 - by Metro - 3 Comments - Add Comment
Gordon Brown pushes for world reduction in nuclear weapons as he makes Iran offer
The UK is to push for a new multilateral deal to reduce the number of nuclear weapons stockpiled around the world, Gordon Brown said today, as he pledged that Britain was "ready" to reduce its own number of Trident warheads.
In his first speech on nuclear disarmament since May, Brown said that a new deal to reduce world stockpiles of atomic weapons was close.
"Britain has cut the number of its nuclear warheads by 50% since 1997 ... If it is possible to reduce the number of UK warheads further, consistent with our national deterrence requirements and with the progress of multilateral discussions, Britain will be ready to do so," he said.
"We must b... Read More
17th March 2009 - by Metro - 0 Comments - Add Comment
Gordon Brown sets out global banking reform
Mr Brown set out his stall in a speech to the Scottish Labour Conference in Dundee where he outlined the prospect of an agreement worldwide to curb banking excesses.
It also included bringing tax havens into the regulatory net, ensuring the whole financial system remained in good health and a framework for international financial supervision.
"I believe there is an emerging consensus on how we strengthen global regulation of our financial markets to prevent any recurrence of the collapse that has caused so much damage to economies around the world," said the Prime Minister.
"We cannot allow a race to the bottom in standards when we need to be at the best stan... Read More
6th March 2009 - by Yahoo - 0 Comments - Add Comment
Gordon Brown brings economic optimism to US Congress
Gordon Brown predicted yesterday that two decades of growth would follow the global recession and called on America to lead the world to recovery.
In a strikingly upbeat speech in Washington he suggested that the world economy would double in size over the next 20 years as people in the Third World became consumers of goods produced in the West.
In an enthusiastically received address to both Houses of Congress, the Prime Minister said that other countries wanted more than ever to work with the US to recover from the "economic hurricane" that had swept the world.
He said that people would cast off their anxieties to create twice as many opportunities for busi... Read More
5th March 2009 - by The Times - 0 Comments - Add Comment
Brown: Europe must act as one
'Protectionism is the road to ruin,' Gordon Brown said yesterday amid warning that the global economic crisis could lead to a new 'Iron Curtain' dividing Europe. 'People neither want protectionism nor do they want to be in a situation where we don't take the fiscal action that is necessary,' the prime minister told EU leaders in Brussels. Calling for a £160 billion bail-out for central and eastern Europe, Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said the credit crunch was hitting poorer countries the hardest. 'We should now allow that a new Iron Curtain should be set up and divide Europe,' he said.
Earlier, eastern European leaders warned against protectionist measures president Nicola... Read More
2nd March 2009 - 3 Comments - Add Comment
Brown plays down threat to Fred the Shred's cash
Gordon Brown did some backpedaling yesterday after his deputy suggested laws could be changed to stop Sir Fred Goodwin getting his £693,000-a-year pension.
The prime minister confirmed the goverment was looking into challenging the Royal Bank of Scotland boss's money.
He stopped short saying it would step in, as deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman did, if the man known as Fred the Shred's legal right to the money was waterlight.
'You are dealing with the law here, but I think the legal advice is that we can look very, very closely at these elements of this pension,' Mr Brown said.
On Sunday, Ms Harman suggested the pension was 'not enforceable in t... Read More
3rd March 2008 - by Metro - 0 Comments - Add Comment
Has Gordon Brown done a good job as Prime Minister?
Gordon Brown, writing in The Times, says: "I am angry at irresponsible behaviour. Where there is excessive and irresponsible risk-taking at has got to be punished."
What, and whom, can he have in mind? The town hall treasurers who invested council taxpayers' money in dodgy high interest Icelandic accounts after being told by the Government to maximise their revenues? Or perhaps he means the bankers offering people on low incomes loans worth 10 times their salaries?
Maybe Mr Brown had in mind someone who sold 60 per cent of the nation's gold reserves in defiance of advice from the Bank of England.
This individual, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the tim... Read More
20th Feb 2009 - By Tim Shipman - 26 Comments - Add Comment
Gordon Brown to resign before next General Election
Gordon Brown will not lead New Labour into the next Election.
The challenge to his leadership will not come from the Tories or Liberals but from within his own party. Gordon Brown is increasingly considered to be “damaged goods” and therefore not capable of ensuring that New Labour maintains its grip on the reins of power.
His failure to depose Tony Blair, the Northern Bank Fiasco, Foot and Mouth Crisis, looming Economic Slump plus his politically damaging U-turn over calling an early election have not only emboldened his enemies but unsettled his so-called allies within the Parliamentary Labour Party.... Read More
21st Feb 2009 - By The Times - 0 Comments - Add Comment
Gordon Brownb gets his meeting with Barack Obama
So Gordon Brown has got his big chance.
The White House announced on Saturday that the prime minister has been invited to meet Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday March 3rd. There is every indication that he will be the first European leader so honoured by the new president.
This marks a victory for British diplomacy and a sign of Mr Obama's good manners for the country that is doing most to support its foreign policy around the world.
There are people in the Labour Party, (some of them are friends of mine), who believe that a well crafted appearance in Washington, followed by agreements to further save the world economy (hasn't the PM already saved it once... Read More
22nd Feb 2009 - By Tim Shipman - 0 Comments - Add Comment
Gordon tells banks: You must go back to basics
Banks in Britain and around the world were told last night they must end risky speculation and resume their traditional role as 'stewards' of people's money.
The warning was issued by Gordon Brown as he and sever other european leaders agreed to overhaul the global financial systemm bringing elements of it under international supervision.
'We have got to show together that we can restructure the banking system around sound banking principles that deliver the integrity and transparency essencial for people to once again trust the banks', the prime minister said at a meeting in Berlin. 'We are looking at how, working with all continents, we can ensure the best means by wh... Read More
23rd Feb 2009 - By Miles Erwin - 0 Comments - Add Comment