Gordon Brown, U.K. prime minister
June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who replaced Tony Blair today, said he will change the face of British politics by reaching across party lines and addressing the concerns of ordinary voters on education, health and housing.
``This need for change cannot be met by the old politics,'' Brown said in Downing Street after his formal appointment. ``I will reach out beyond narrow party interest. I will build a government that uses all the talents.''
Brown, 56, is seeking to revive the ruling Labour Party's flagging popularity after a decade in office under Blair. Brown, who served all that time as chancellor of the exchequer, is attempting to convince voters that his administration marks a change in the way the nation is governed. The Conservative opposition says only new leadership will improve schools, hospitals and police.
``Gordon Brown has always been a very important part of Tony Blair's government,'' Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, said in an interview. ``The way we will deal with this is to take him seriously but to recognize his failings and to remind everyone that he didn't arrive out of nowhere.''
Election and Iraq
With three years before he must call another election, Brown has said he will focus on housing, health and education to improve Labour's standing with voters. Blair stepped aside after his support within the party and the electorate ebbed away as opposition to the war in Iraq mounted.
Blair will become an envoy to the Middle East for the ``Quartet'' including the U.S., United Nations, European Union and Russia and step down as a member of the U.K. Parliament.
Brown made his first remarks after meeting Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace earlier today. In a private ceremony, known as the ``kissing of hands,'' she asked him to form a government. Brown was elected unopposed as leader of the ruling Labour Party on June 24.
His first task is to appoint the rest of his government. Many of those appointments will be made tomorrow at ``lunchtime,'' according to his spokesman, Michael Ellam. Brown will also make changes to the machinery of government that will become apparent when the Cabinet is named, Ellam said.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling is most likely to take over from Brown as chancellor of the exchequer, according to Ladbrokes, the world's biggest betting company.
`Need for Change'
``I have heard the need for change,'' Brown said. ``Change in our NHS. Change in our schools. Change with affordable housing. Change to build trust in government. Change to protect and extend the British way of life.''
In most opinion polls published during the past year, Labour has trailed the Conservatives, under leader David Cameron, 40. A YouGov Plc poll published today showed Labour with the support of 36 percent of voters compared with 37 percent for the opposition. The survey of 2,080 people was conducted June 22-25.
``For a political party that has been in power for 10 years the task of refreshing is pretty hard but in Gordon we see a figure of substance compared to David Cameron,'' said Hazel Blears, who served as Labour Party chairman under Blair.
Yesterday, Brown scored an early victory when Conservative lawmaker Quentin Davies announced his defection to Labour, saying that under Cameron's leadership the party has ``ceased collectively to believe in anything.''
Conservative Position
``An opposition party should be in a better place by now if it wants to win the next general election,'' Stephan Shakespeare, chief executive of YouGov, said in an interview. ``Although Cameron wins in the polls on charisma, he loses on toughness and leadership.''
The new prime minister's most immediate challenge will be to break from Blair's legacy in Iraq. More than three-quarters of British voters want the government to set a timetable to bring troops home or to pull them out immediately, according to a YouGov Plc poll finished on June 7.
Brown has already said ``mistakes'' were made ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, though he has rebuffed calls for an independent inquiry into the decision. The U.K. is in the process of cutting the size of its force in Iraq to about 5,500 soldiers this summer from 7,100 in February.
Beginning his leadership campaign on May 11, Brown said education is his ``passion'' and the state-run National Health Service his ``immediate priority.''
Budget Squeeze
His new chancellor also must reduce a budget deficit. Brown ran up deficits totaling 169.4 billion pounds ($338 billion) in the five fiscal years since 2003, erasing three years of surpluses he built after taking office in 1997. The Treasury expects the shortfall to decline to 24 billion pounds in the 2011 fiscal year from 34 billion pounds last year, assuming it can cut the pace of spending growth in half.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimates that non-health and education spending growth must slow to 0.5 percent through 2011 if Brown keeps expanding health spending at 4.4 percent, the rate recommended by a report he commissioned in 2001.
``Spending will go back to half the rate departments had got used to in recent years,'' said Carl Emerson, deputy director at the IFS.
In March, Brown set out the size of the spending envelope through 2011. His successor will release a Comprehensive Spending Review in October divvying up the money. The figures call for public spending to rise 2 percent a year through that period, half the pace of the previous few years.
Education Ambition
On Sunday, Brown repeated his commitment to increasing education spending per pupil from 5,500 pounds a year to 8,000 pounds a year. In his emotional remarks in Downing Street, Brown recalled his childhood in Kirkcaldy, a district north of Edinburgh he now represents, and the importance of education.
``I grew up in the town that I now represent in Parliament, and I went to the local school,'' Brown said. ``I wouldn't be standing here without the opportunities that I received there. I want the best of chances for everyone. That is my mission.''
He also said he wanted to help young people who can't afford to buy their first homes. House prices tripled while Brown was chancellor. On May 13, he promised to spur construction of five new environmentally friendly cities as part of a plan to supply 200,000 new homes a year, up from an annual average of 148,000 between 1989 and 2005.
``Affordable homes for all is a very good cause to have adopted,'' said Andrew Cooper, co-founder of Populus Ltd., which conducts polls. ``It's a growing problem related to aspiration among middle classes as well as equality among the poor.''
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