Brown 'extraordinarily bad' PM

A former key cabinet ally of Gordon Brown has said that he is a "control freak" who has done "extraordinarily badly" as prime minister.

In an interview with The Monitor former international development secretary Clare Short attacked Brown as a disappointment who has changed "remarkably little" since moving to Number 10.

"Gordon Brown and I worked closely with each other for a long time and he has always been a control freak and a spinner.

"However, I thought that when he became prime minister he would do better on content than he has and I thought that he understood that there would have to be changes from what Blair had been up to, in order to make the party more popular.

"I didn't have any illusions that he was going to solve all problems but I thought he might have done better. He has done extraordinarily badly and he has changed remarkably little," the now independent MP said.

Short, who resigned from cabinet over the lack of preparation for post-war reconstruction of Iraq, said that sliding popularity showed Labour had "lost its way". 

She said: "The spin and the nastiness has got so out of control and it is just another sign that the party has lost its way, its heart and its membership as well – I now have more friends that have left than are still in it."