Brown bandwagon rolls in looking for Scots support

Published on Saturday 2 June 2007 12:16

GORDON BROWN and the Labour deputy leadership bandwagon were due in Glasgow today seeking crucial Scottish support.

The six candidates for the deputy's job were frantically bidding for the vital votes of party activists at the hustings, set to get under way at noon.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister-in-waiting was seeking to reassure the core Scottish voters who gave Labour a bloody nose in the Holyrood elections.

The party faithful are keen to know what a Brown premiership can do for them

but he will be aware the rest of the UK is watching. If he is seen to pander to old Labour in Scotland, Tory leader David Cameron will waste no time in claiming he is taking the party back to its "Red Clydeside" days.

The deputy leadership contenders are also facing awkward tasks.

Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary and bookies' favourite, is hoping not to appear too New Labour for the mostly old Labour crowd and party chairman Hazel Blears has yet to convince that her energy, capacity for hard work and courage would be an asset.

Outsider Jon Cruddas has been trying to connect with Scottish activists, while Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland and Wales Secretary, is parading his radical roots as a veteran anti-apartheid campaigner.

Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman aims to overcome her Home Counties image and Education Secretary Alan Johnson is bidding to rid himself of the "dark horse" tag.