Monday 30 August 2010

George Bush's White House had 'grave doubts' about Gordon Brown as PM

The White House under George Bush reportedly told Tony Blair it harboured "grave doubts" about Gordon Brown's suitability to be prime minister, according to today's Sunday Telegraph. The concerns about Brown, whose relations with Bush were stilted when he eventually became prime minister, arose from a difficult meeting with Condoleezza Rice. Brown is said to have "harangued" Rice, then secretary of state, over US policy on aid and development in Africa. Rice reportedly alerted the White House which passed on its concerns to Blair.


No date is given for the meeting with Rice, who became secretary of state at the start of Bush's second term in January 2005. Blair announced in the early autumn of 2006 that he would stand down before the time of the Labour conference in 2007, suggesting that Rice's comments were passed on in 2005 or 2006. Labour sources were not surprised by the report, given Brown had made it clear he did not share Blair's enthusiasm for the US president. But the paper's suggestion that Blair prolonged his time in Downing Street in response to misgivings in the White House were dismissed by insiders.

Peter Mandelson's recent memoirs state that Blair hung on so long because Brown declined to support his domestic public services reforms. "Basically Gordon is on strike," Blair reportedly told Mandelson of the then chancellor's view of a series of five year plans he launched at the Labour conference in 2004. Blair's hand was finally forced in 2006 after he declined to call for a ceasefire after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. David Miliband, then the environment secretary, was one of his supporters to speak out in cabinet, inadvertently strengthening the hand of Brown's supporters who finally struck

Brown eventually became prime minister at the end of June 2007. A month later he visited Bush at Camp David, causing mild offence by briefing that he would not handle relations with the White House in the same way as his predecessor. In contrast to the jeans sported by Blair for a Camp David meeting with Bush, Brown made a point of wearing a suit and tie for his joint press conference. Bush addressed Brown as Gordon who then replied "Mr President". Brown described their discussions as "full and frank"