Brown plays down talk of early election

GORDON BROWN was today damping down speculation of a snap election next year despite appointing Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander as campaign co-ordinator.

Senior aides said the Prime Minister-in-waiting would not go to the polls until 2009 at the earliest.

Following his coronation as Labour leader, the Chancellor provoked predictions of an early poll by announcing Mr Alexander's new role immediately. But senior members of Mr Brown's campaign team said this was preparation for an election in two years' time rather than a plan to go to the country early next spring.

Mr Brown was in confident mood when he addressed the special Labour conference in Manchester yesterday telling delegates: "We are ready not just to fight but to win a General Election."

His comments followed the latest opinion poll which showed Labour ahead of the Tories for the first time in more than a year and gave Mr Brown a lead of 40 per cent to 22 per cent over Tory leader David Cameron on who would make a more capable premier.

Mr Brown promised to give Labour back its "soul" as his favoured candidate for the deputy leadership job Harriet Harman scraped in just ahead of Education Secretary Alan Johnson.

Following his victory and preparing for taking over as prime minister from Tony Blair on Wednesday, Mr Brown moved swiftly. He appointed Mr Alexander, who splits his Cabinet job between Scotland and transport, as his General Election co-ordinator and indicated that Mrs Harman would become Labour chairman as well as No 2 in the party but not deputy prime minister.

But senior aides were keen to damp down suggestions he might respond to calls to secure his mandate with an early General Election next spring.

One Cabinet minister and close confidante of Mr Brown told the Evening News: "Talk of an early election is all speculation. I think there's no chance he will go next year. We are looking at two years at the earliest."

Mr Alexander's appointment is controversial after his role in the fiasco of last month's Holyrood election when 146,000 spoiled votes were blamed on the design of the ballot paper.

Mr Brown is understood to be preparing to further reduce the power of trade unions by giving party members the final say on Labour's election manifesto through the "one member one vote" system further reducing the power of Labour's conference on policy making.

And he is already working on his first Cabinet reshuffle in advance of going to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and take over as Prime Minister on Wednesday.

Edinburgh South West MP and Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling is expected to take over as Chancellor of the Exchequer with Commons Leader Jack Straw, who ran Mr Brown's leadership campaign, expected to be given a key role - perhaps as Deputy Prime Minister.