Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently insisted he does not want to become “a backseat driver” telling Andy Burnham’s new government what to do. But it seems he just can’t help himself. A succession of cabinet ministers and other leading Labour politicians have told POLITICO that Brown, a party elder who was prime minister between 2007 and 2010, contacts them by email — written in capital letters — to offer them advice.
And on Tuesday, Burnham, who has been PM for just 10 weeks, disclosed that he is looking to emulate Brown, heaping praise on his predecessor for showing how Britain could lead the world through a crisis. He has picked colleagues who served with him in Brown’s ministerial team for key jobs in government — including Ed Miliband, the new foreign secretary, Chancellor John Healey, and Douglas Alexander, the Scotland secretary. In interviews at the POLITICO Pub during Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week, the extent of Brown’s contacts became clear.
Miliband, who was an adviser to Brown during his time in the Treasury, said they had spoken by phone while he was in New York at the U.N. General Assembly earlier this month. It’s a great email to get, honestly.” Healey, the chancellor, disclosed in an interview with the Sunday Times that he receives emails in bold capitals from Brown, who was Britain’s longest-serving chancellor of modern times, before he became prime ministers in 2007.
Alexander, the Scotland secretary, told POLITICO he, too, was the recipient of messages from Brown, who represented a Scottish constituency during his time in parliament. Healey also told Labour members in Liverpool that he once had to lend Brown a red tie for his speech to the Labour Party conference in 1999. Brown returned it afterwards, and signed it, and Healey said he had kept it safe ever since, until he put it on again on Monday to deliver his own conference speech as chancellor.
Brown, whose office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, does have an official government role: Burnham has kept him on as an adviser on global finance and cooperation, a post he was given by the previous PM, Keir Starmer. In that role, Brown is due to contribute to developing “new international finance partnerships that can support defence and security-related investment, including measures that underpin the U.K.’s relationship with Europe,” according to the government press release announcing his appointment. Brown’s role is officially “unpaid” and “part time,” although that hasn’t stopped him working late to contact ministers after hours.
Andrew McDonald, John Johnston and Dan Bloom contributed reporting from Liverpool.
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