Blair and Brown Appear To Call A Truce
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LONDON – Prime Minister Blair’s biggest rival may be his most important ally in his re-election bid.
Mr. Blair and the treasury chief, Gordon Brown, who is widely believed to covet the prime minister’s job himself, appear to have called a truce in their simmering feud. They are united in seeking a third term for their Labor Party in May 5 elections.
As the campaign accelerates, Messrs. Blair and Brown, so often portrayed as bitter adversaries, have become an inseparable duo – crisscrossing the country by helicopter and holding a joint news conference yesterday in which Mr. Brown derided the opposition Conservatives’ spending proposals.
“It’s a partnership that’s worked,” Mr. Blair said in his first election broadcast a day earlier. The closeness the two are trying to project is raising the eyebrows of some election observers – but all agree it is politically astute. “This illusion of unity is absolutely essential,” said a political analyst at Manchester University, William Jones. The Blair-Brown relationship is compelling political soap opera. Tension between them dates back to 1994, when they were jostling for the leadership of the Labor Party.
Mr. Brown, now 54, is three years older than Mr. Blair and a more experienced lawmaker, but his Scottish-accented oratory can be plodding even when fiery, and he seems to wear a permanent scowl of concern. He grudgingly took the advice of party insiders and stood aside in favor of his more dynamic colleague.
Messrs. Blair and Brown were widely reported to have reached an understanding – never formally confirmed – that if Labor won, Mr. Blair would step down after about six years and let Mr. Brown take the helm. Labor crushed the Tories in 1997, but the deadline for the switch passed two years ago. If persistent gossip in political circles be believed, Mr. Brown is furious.
“It was like the eldest son in an aristocratic family being told he will not inherit the title and that his younger brother looked better on television,” a political commentator, Simon Hoggart, said.
