Friday, 23 May 2008 04:00
Blears: Labour will stick with Brown
Friday, 23, May 2008 12:00
Communities secretary Hazel Blears made clear last night she is refusing to consider replacing Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour party.
"You've got a man there who's been the chancellor for ten years, who's kept the economy doing extremely well and I think the last thing we want is for the Labour party to start arguing amongst ourselves," she said on BBC1's Question Time.
"I think the last thing people want is for the Labour party, then, to turn in on itself, to be obsessed with our own affairs, and not actually doing the things that the public want.
"What the public want is actually for the government to concentrate on the cost of living, fuel prices, food prices, the things that are really pressing them at the moment."
"When we came into government, the income per head in this country – we were bottom of all the developed big nations across the world.
"We're now second from the top. In the last ten years, for most people they're better off, for most people their communities are in a damn sight better state.
"The NHS isn't perfect, but it's an awful lot better than it was. Our schools are improving and I think for most people over the last ten years, life has got better," she concluded.