The Tories should fear the dynamic new team of professionals that Brown is assembling

8 March 2008

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

It is a story that could have been scripted to boost morale in Conservative headquarters. At five o’clock one morning, security guards at 10 Downing Street were called in to intercept an intruder only to find the Prime Minister trying to enter his own office. Apart from the delicious image this conjures of Gordon Brown in his pyjamas, cursing as he bashes in the security code, it caricatures him as the ideal political opponent. An inept, flailing control freak, whose own shortcomings will lose Labour the next election.

Alas for the Tories, this story is several months out of date. It took place in the earliest days of the Brown premiership, when he had no home access to the Prime Minister’s computer, forcing him to sneak downstairs to the office. Much has changed since then and the latest developments are, for the Tories, no laughing matter. The PM is building an increasingly professional team in No. 10 — and, more importantly, learning to trust it. What is more, the new Brown operation strikes a formidable contrast with Tory head office.

The crunch came at the end of last year, when Mr Brown realised that his plan to run No. 10 using former Treasury officials and Brownite apparatchiks had failed. The evidence was, by then, piled high, with Northern Rock at the top. So he sent Tom Scholar, his chief of staff, back to the Treasury and hired Stephen Carter, an outsider with an extraordinary CV. In the past ten years alone he has run J. Walter Thompson UK, the advertising firm, NTL (now known as Virgin Media), the regulator Ofcom, and Brunswick, the stellar public relations agency.

So Mr Carter is, to put it mildly, one of the more capable men wandering around Whitehall. Even the most paranoid Prime Minister could trust his abilities — which Mr Brown is doing. The PM no longer takes part in the No. 10 early morning conference call — ceding the floor to Mr Carter, who works in tandem with Jeremy Heywood, brought back from Morgan Stanley to the new post of permanent secretary at No. 10. Those who overhear their conversations with Mr Brown say that phrases like ‘It’s OK, we’ll fix it’ are common. Amazingly, Gordon is slowly letting go.

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Christopher Chantrill

March 7th, 2008 4:22am Report this comment

The thing is: if Gordon Brown and his tip-top management team start legislating welfare and education reform where does that leave the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Labour client state? Isn't this government without politics?

Snouter

March 7th, 2008 8:36am Report this comment

One question: how does Brown pay for these people? Is it tax payers' money - or is it Labour party money? (I thought they were bankrupt.)

E Welshman

March 17th, 2008 8:23pm Report this comment

But it's still the inept Bottler that they are trying to groom. How many of them will have given it up as a bad job in 6 months' time?

David Bretagne

March 17th, 2008 8:48pm Report this comment

McBrown will need to retain some control (freakery) in order to prevent the unlikeable Balls from spoiling his party.

David Winkworth

March 17th, 2008 9:05pm Report this comment

brwon can assemble any team he likes - I will never ever forgive him for what he did to pensions and for funding the Iraq war

John Maynard

March 18th, 2008 10:17pm Report this comment

With the financial system teetering and the government bankrupt, no wonder there are suddenly a surfeit of "masters of the universe", and business consultant types looking for bolt-holes with Brown. Fraser Nelson should surely have realised by now that all of these "business geniuses" and investment bankers (!) with their superficial "solutions" and brilliant wheezes are much overrated.

Tony B

March 21st, 2008 3:26am Report this comment

The unfortunate thing about Politics these day with the hiring of consultants is that its the consultants that are already inside the door that are advising to hire them!! Soon there will be nobody in Politics with any actual real interest in Politics. Just what lobbyists,big business want.

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