Gordon Brown will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Tony Blair going into the next general election.
The Chancellor moved quickly yesterday to stamp out rumours that he was preparing to bid for the Labour leadership following the "kicking" in the local elections on Thursday.
Labour lost some 464 seats and eight councils, including Swansea, Newcastle and Leeds, in the "Super Thursday" elections - slumping into third place behind the Tories and Lib Dems - the worst showing for Labour in living memory.
The party leadership - Mr Brown included - has acknowledged that the Iraq war was chiefly responsible for the huge drop in support.
Mr Brown told Channel Four News that "lessons to be learned" from the events in Iraq.
"We are in the transition from people thinking that some of the problems in Iraq would not be solved to us now having the UN resolution and therefore a multilateral effort.'
"All these things are happening, but of course it's too early for people to see that the big effect is being achieved and that will obviously take some time."
But Mr Brown said he believed the majority of Britons did support military action in March last year.
"All these things are happening, but of course it's too early for people to see that the big effect is being achieved and that will obviously take some time," he said.
Mr Brown said Friday that Labour would win a historic third term of office with Tony Blair at the helm.
Dispelling rumours - in no uncertain words - that he was to imminently bid for the leadership, Mr Brown said: "I'm happy doing the job I'm doing."
But he warned: "We are not complacent, and we will fight the election with our positive policies on the health service, on education, on the economy, on full employment."
But Mr Brown did fall short of saying he would decline any offer to become Prime Minister if Labour won the next general election.
Home secretary David Blunkett last night also rallied round Mr Blair.
"Tony Blair's courage, his determination, his unwillingness to be switched and swayed from a path that he's had to follow will be a merit, not a disadvantage, when it comes to the general election', he said.
Mr Blair last night urged Labour to hold its collective nerve to see through major reforms in the public services. |
