Short brands Brown 'a tragedy'
Monday, 15 June 2009 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Former Cabinet secretary Clare Short has branded Gordon Brown's time as prime minister "a tragedy".
Comparing the current prime minister to his predecessor, Ms Short said: "In a sense Gordon is the bigger tragedy. He always wanted to be prime minister and thought it should have been him, rather than Tony [Blair]. Certainly, when they were both together in opposition, Gordon was the senior one.
"I think he got so het-up in taking over that he lost his way, he lost his sense of who he was," she told the Birmingham Post.
"He hinted that there would be a bit of a fresh beginning when he took over from Tony and we needed that - people have forgotten how unpopular Tony became - and he just blew it.
"I think he spent so long calculating how to take over that he lost remembering why he did it.
He's not a bad person, he's a control freak and he hasn't got Tony's charm, as everybody sees. I think he's lost his way."
Ms Short resigned from the government just after the start of the Iraq war.
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