WHEN Gordon Brown moves into No 10, long before Tony Blair’s departure, he will make an important and decisive break with the past.
The change will have nothing to do with distancing himself from Blairism. It will be Dame Norma Major’s chintz curtains and swag and the beige damask sofa, complete with brown piping, that will be the first casualty of his move.
The early-1990s glass coffee table, which was left behind by the last Conservative Prime Minister, is also destined for the charity shop.
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The 15-year-old television set and remote control, which broke down long before the Chancellor’s relationship with the Prime Minister went the same way, will go straight in to the skip. The stained beige carpet is also vulnerable.
The famously austere Chancellor has agreed that the three-storey flat, which has been virtually empty and unchanged since the Majors left in 1997, needs an update. New beds and curtains are already on order.
The flat was converted out of servants’ quarters in the attic 60 years ago by Clement Attlee, the Labour Prime Minister, who had no suitable London home of his own.
Mr Brown, his wife, Sarah, son John and their new arrival, Fraser, will be moving into the flat within weeks on the advice of the security services.
The Blair family lives next door in the much-bigger flat above No 11, which the Chancellor vacated shortly after Labour came to power.
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A friend of the Chancellor said: “He was reluctant to move because it may look presumptuous, but his flat is tiny. To be honest, you couldn’t swing a cat in it. It’s also very Gordon. It’s spartan.”
It’s so basic that, since John was born in 2003, Mrs Brown has lived most of the week at the family home in Fife, Scotland, while the Chancellor stays in London.
The two floors above the first-floor state room in No 10 will be turned into the couple’s living accommodation but, as ever, the parsimonious Chancellor will be keeping a careful eye on the costs.
“Nothing too extravagant,” said the friend. “You know Gordon.”