SENIOR Cabinet ministers backed Gordon Brown’s credentials to succeed Tony Blair and represent the aspirations of Middle England yesterday as he prepared to enlarge on his agenda for running Britain.
The Chancellor will use a speech today to outline his vision of Britishness, with eye-catching proposals to honour war veterans, teach young people about their sacrifices in the First and Second World Wars, and involve youngsters in setting up a “veterans’ archive” to mark their achievements.
After Labour’s defeat in Mr Brown’s backyard in the Dunfermline by-election, for which some of the blame was pinned on him, ministers who see Mr Brown’s succession to the Labour crown as inevitable raced to endorse him.
David Miliband, the Communities Minister, who some have seen as as an alternative Blairite candidate to Mr Brown, received applause at Labour’s spring conference in Blackpool when he called Mr Brown a “leader-in-waiting” and said that the Conservatives were as scared of Mr Brown as they were of Mr Blair.
The Chancellor, in an interview with the BBC’s Sunday AM programme, said that there was no “deal” between himself and Mr Blair about running the country between them.
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Although Mr Brown maintains that he is not against a contest for the leadership, he and his allies hope that he will be given a clear run by the Blairite Cabinet members, which seems likely, and that any battle is with a leftwinger who will stand on an anti-reform ticket.
Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, who said yesterday that Mr Brown had not been personally damaged by the Dunfermline result although the Government had been weakened, denied that Mr Brown would fail to attract Middle England. He said: “Gordon has an outstanding record for Middle England, as indeed for the rest of the country.”
The Chancellor will today, in his speech at the Royal United Services Institute, call for more recognition of the contribution of the police, the military and the security services. Far from failing to teach history on the great wars of the past century, “we must do more to remember them so that they will never be forgotten”. He will propose ceremonies in every constituency to mark a national veterans’ day in June.