GORDON BROWN has rushed to the bedside of his elderly mother who is seriously ill in hospital.
Mr Brown was due to join members of the TUC General Council for dinner in Brighton last night. But he telephoned Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, to say he would not be joining the union leaders.
A spokesman for Mr Brown said that the Chancellor’s mother, Elizabeth, was ill in hospital. Mr Brown took an early morning flight to be with his mother, who was admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on Friday.
Ian McCartney, the Labour Party chairman, was due to deputise for the Chancellor at the TUC event. A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said Mrs Brown, 86, was “seriously ill”. Last October Mrs Brown was taken to hospital after a fall. Mr Brown left the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth to be by her bedside.