British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday that he was confident his Labour Party would recover from a disastrous performance in local elections and rejected suggestions he should resign. As commentators warned that last week’s poll rout could spell the end for the Labour government at national elections due by 2010, he admitted mistakes had been made but said the global economic slowdown was largely to blame for his party’s performance. “Of course we can recover from this position and I will tell you how,” he told BBC television in his first interview since the elections.
He said, “First of all by sorting out the immediate problem with the economy and showing people we can come through, as we have in the past, very difficult economic times. Secondly, by showing people we have a vision of the future that will carry the country - optimistically in my view - into its next phase.” Brown said Labour was putting “big building blocks” in place for the future, such as giving working families a fair deal and helping people buy their first home. |