It is official if anyone was in any doubt, Gordon Brown will run for the Labour leadership when Blair steps down. Don’t say we don’t give you exclusives! Jack Straw announced it in an email sent to all Labour MPs, also declaring that he will run Brown’s campaign.
Hardly a shock, although it perhaps begins to reveal some of the make up of Brown’s future cabinet. The next chancellor is widely debated, with there seeming to be no clear front runner, Ed Balls is undoubtedly seen as talented and is one of Brown’s closest allies. However, he has only been an MP for a short period of time. The next candidate is Alistair Darling, again close to Brown and perceived as talented. However, how will the country react to having two Scots in the top two positions, particularly when the West Lothian Question will be being debated more.
So perhaps that leads the way for Straw, he is certainly experienced after all he ran Blair’s leadership campaign in 1994. He may be seen by Brown as far more experienced that the other candidates, it is unlikely to upset the Blairites too much. For Straw, it would also mean that in his political career he would have been Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor, quite a remarkable achievement, the only person to have been all three and Prime Minister was James Callaghan. Furthermore, it could be seen as the ideal appointment by Brown to appease all sides and have a safe pair of hands running the economy, which it will need after ten years of the same figure, Brown knows he will not want someone radically changing the work he has done. However, if he were to win the next election that is perhaps when we could see Darling or Balls.
