York MP Hugh Bayley still backing Prime Minster Gordon Brown after Labour Party Conference speech

8:23am Thursday 1st October 2009

By Gavin Aitchison

GORDON BROWN is “not a glamorous figure” and “not a very good publicist”, but he still has what it takes to lead Britain, York’s MP has said.

As the Prime Minister tried to brush off the impact of losing the support of The Sun newspaper, Hugh Bayley said the Prime Minister’s speech to the Labour Party Conference this week showed clear differences between his party and the Conservatives.

Mr Bayley said Mr Brown had set out a “powerful vision of what the future would be like if Labour was re-elected”.

In a round of interviews yesterday, Mr Brown sought to turn attention back onto his new policies, which included free home care for elderly people, a maximum one-week wait for cancer tests and hostel accommodation for teenage mothers, after which Mr Bayley said Mr Brown was not an “enigmatic chat-show-type figure”, but he praised his policies.

“I am the first to admit he is not a glamorous figure, but people want reassurance that jobs and housing are safe and I think more than Cameron, Gordon [Brown] has the confidence and experience to provide the leadership on the crucial issues,” said Mr Bayley.

The York MP said Mr Brown had been right to intervene to support the banks. He said he supported the Prime Minister’s calls for a referendum on voting reform, and backed his proposals on a national care service. Mr Bayley said he would not predict the result of the next General Election, but admitted publicly for the first time that his own seat would be a straight fight between him and the Conservative candidate Susan Wade Weeks.

The Labour MP currently has a majority of 10,472, but he said: “Everyone knows in York that either myself or the Conservatives will get in.”

Selby MP John Grogan, who is standing down at the next election, said Labour had been buoyed by the week’s conference.

He said: “I think the combination of Lord Mandelson and Gordon Brown has put fresh heart and fighting spirit into the party.”

Mr Grogan said the decision by The Sun newspaper yesterday to come out in support of the Conservatives was less important than it would have been in the 1990s, due to declining readership.

He said he would “not presume” to predict the public’s verdict in an election, but said he thought there was still “everything to play for”.