Chancellor dismisses speech clash hype
The Chancellor Gordon Brown has dismissed hype over Tony Blair’s decision to make a key public appearance at the same time that he is due to deliver a major speech.
Mr Brown is in Edinburgh to put forward his vision for tackling the causes of poverty in the developing world.
He began his speech at 1000 GMT – exactly the same time that Mr Blair began taking questions from journalists in London as part of his monthly televised press conference.
With events in Asia and the British aid effort still dominating the news, Mr Blair is focusing on many of the issues Mr Brown is raising in his speech.
But speaking this morning Mr Brown said the timing of speeches was irrelevant.
He told GMTV: “The timing of speeches doesn’t matter. It’s the shared agenda, the common purpose. It’s an agreed agenda of the British Government and governments around the world.”
The Chancellor will detail his new “Marshall Plan” for the developing world, which aims to release “sufficient resources” in debt relief and extra money from the richest countries to deal with the “underlying causes” of poverty in Africa and elsewhere.
Speaking at his monthly press conference, Mr Blair also dismissed suggestions of any significance of the timing of the appearances and the likely similar agendas.
He told reporters that it was “perfectly sensible” for the Government to carry on with its agenda, and argued that he frequently spoke about Africa and similar subjects to the Chancellor.
The policy in regard to Africa has been hammered out of seven years, he added, saying there is “complete unity of purpose on that”.
Furthermore, the Prime Minister played down talk of renewed tensions.
He said that Mr Brown has “done a superb job as Chancellor and I am very happy with the job he is doing.”
The PM refused to be drawn into “the business of what happens after election, of reshuffles and all the rest of it.”
