Blair 'will sack Brown' after election

Last updated at 15:17 26 August 2004


Tony Blair will sack Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer if he wins the next general election, a senior Labour MP claimed today.

Sir Gerald Kaufman said there would "obviously" be a reshuffle after the election in which the Prime Minister would use to install a new occupant in No 11 Downing Street.

"The Prime Minister will do whatever he wants to do and I think it is inevitable that Gordon Brown will be moved out of the Treasury," he said in an interview with the ePolitix.com political website.

"If we win the next election he will have been Chancellor for eight years. He's an excellent Chancellor but eight years is a very long time to be in that job."

New job?

Sir Gerald said it was unclear whether Mr Brown - who relishes his power across Whitehall - would be prepared to accept an alternative job or would leave the Government altogether.

"Whether he'd accept any other position, who can tell? You'd have to ask him, I don't know his mind, I've never discussed it with him," he said.

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