So what will the new Brown era be like? No more of that nasty spin? Those who attended Anthony Browne’s leaving party on Tuesday evening found out different. As Chief Political Correspondent of The Times, he has been asked to get the Treasury’s response to the newspaper’s extraordinary scoop that Gordon Brown had been warned about the damage his 1997 pensions raid would do. Reply came in the form of a text message from Damian McBride – a former VAT press officer now special adviser to the Chancellor.
This, bear in mind, was the story the Treasury had spent two years trying to suppress by seeking to refuse The Times’ Freedom of Information request. It knew very well what the “news” was. Incredibly, Mr McBride went on to suggest the pensions story was a vendetta as Mr Browne was leaving to run Policy Exchange, a think tank. His text message continued:-
“Then again i suppose your err… ‘new’ tory employers will be delighted so I can see why you personally are trying to turn it into something.
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