Brown 'fall' mirrors Major's - book

6:47am Friday 4th July 2008

The collapse in popularity of Gordon Brown's government mirrors the fall of John Major's administration in the 1990s, according to a new book on the Conservatives' "wilderness years" by a former Tory chairman, Lord (Norman) Fowler.

According to Lord Fowler, political history is repeating itself.

"Over the last 12 months we have seen Labour encounter many of the very issues which led to the downfall of Major's government," he said.

Lord Fowler said that Mr Brown made a good start as Prime Minister, but it was "swiftly followed by a chapter of accidents in the black autumn of 2007" reminiscent of 1992 and Britain's ejection from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on so-called Black Wednesday.

"We have seen the Government's reputation for economic competence undermined and another chancellor under pressure. We have seen sleaze infect a party which once claimed that only the Tories were 'tainted' by it. We have seen another government at odds with its activists. The Conservatives had Europe; Labour has Iraq," he said.

Mr Brown is known to be furious at being compared to John Major. As the Major government collapsed in the 1990s, Mr Brown - then the shadow chancellor - was at the forefront of New Labour's attacks on the Tories.

When he became Chancellor in 1997, he claimed the credit for the economic recovery, saying he had ended the "boom and bust" of the Tory years.

However, as the Government's economic woes have piled up, Labour has fallen to record lows in the opinion polls and Mr Brown's own leadership is being questioned by senior Labour MPs.

In a book entitled A Political Suicide: The Conservatives' Voyage Into The Wilderness, Lord Fowler said that after succeeding Margaret Thatcher in 1990, John Major won an election two years later. But he doubts that Mr Brown can follow suit.

"Major was a fresh face. He presented a more sympathetic image than the leader he succeeded. The public liked him. Brown is no-one's idea of a natural communicator and he has the misfortune to follow one of the acknowledged masters of that art and find himself up against another."

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