Brown has last fling

writes: Gordon Brown today sought to use his 11th and last Budget to convince doubters he is worthy of the job he has coveted for two decades - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.He stood up in the Commons at 12.30pm, hoping to put behind him a day dubbed by his critics as Black Tuesday. He sat down after giving possibly his biggest final line yet - cutting basic income tax by 2p to 20p from April next year. It brought Labour cheers.

Labour MPs believed they had caught tax-cutting Tories on the hop.

It also gave the Chancellor the chance to display his political prowess in a week he would rather forget.

Yesterday was probably the blackest of Mr Brown's 10 years at the Treasury, which saw dull Budget packages in his determination to stay close to his two girlfriends, Prudence and Patience.

The worst inflation figures for 15 years, an opinion poll which put David Cameron 15 per cent ahead, and most damaging and hurtful of all, a former top civil service partner saying he operates with "Stalinist ruthlessness".

Today he was attempting not to show the strain - and his budget speech was filled rhetoric about the state of an economy he has tended for the last decade and intends to lead as Prime Minister in future years.

He said: "After 10 years of sustained growth, Britain's growth will continue into its 59th quarter - the forecast end of the cycle - and then into its 60th and 61st quarter and beyond.

"Before 1997 we were bottom in the G7 for national income per head - seventh out of seven, behind Germany, Italy, France, Canada and Japan. Now we are second only to America and ahead of all these countries."

Over the Stalinist jibe he won cheers for suggesting he should perhaps address MPs as "comrades". Last night his smile was rather less convincing as he drove to Buckingham Palace to reveal his Budget to the Queen. Today he had to reassure Labour MPs and the public that he has the bottle to put setbacks behind him - that he is not TS Elliot's cat Macavity, who lies low when the going gets tough.

In short, his supporters wanted to see the re-emergence of the Iron Chancellor, but with softer edges so that he doesn't frighten off the voters.

The plain truth is that, despite all the problems over Iraq and the deterioration of Tony Blair's own image, a Blair-led Labour government still does better in the polls than the, as yet hypothetical one, led by Mr Brown.

In his efforts to convince us that he will make a worthy leader of the nation, the Chancellor will repeat Mr Blair's 'education, education, education' mantra, stress his ambition to eradicate child poverty burns as brightly as ever, and emphasise his commitment to the safety and security of Britain and its citizens.

Much-needed tightening of the purse strings meant that he had little opportunity for giveaways today, and he needed to be careful not to diminish the impact of his own policy announcements once he moves into 10 Downing Street.

But in personal political terms, this Budget statement was more important than any of the 10 that have gone before.

Bigger tests, nevertheless, are yet to come.

By John Hipwood