Expense scandal: Brown admits emotional toll

London: Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown hinted at the emotional toll attacks on his leadership had taken but said he would lead his party into a general election, the Guardian reported on Saturday.

Brown said he had been "hurt" by the personal attacks directed at him during a week of turmoil earlier this month when some lawmakers called on him to stand down and a clutch of ministers walked out of his Cabinet, overshadowing a reshuffle.

In an interview with The Guardian, Brown also said "we didn't know a lot about" banks buying up sub-prime mortgages during his 10-year tenure as finance minister and did not discount it happening again because of the global nature of modern banking.

"To be honest, you could walk away from all of this tomorrow," he said.

"I'm not interested in what accompanies being in power. I wouldn't worry if I never returned to all those places Downing Street, Chequers. And it would probably be good for my children."

Brown has repeatedly insisted he will "not walk away" from the job despite calls from some Labour figures, alarmed at a drubbing in local and European elections, for him to stand down.

They are concerned that unless Brown is replaced the party will lose the parliamentary election that must be held within a year.

The ruling Labour Party is significantly trailing in opinion polls to the main opposition Conservative Party.

Brown has said he is the man to take the country out of the economic downturn and clean-up a parliamentary system tarnished by an expenses scandal that has affected all main parties.

"It's easy to find an individual to blame, and make that person the source of the trouble, but we've been hit by a world economic hurricane, by an expenses crisis unparalleled in the history of Westminster, and we've been in government for 12 years," he said.

"Of course, unity in the party is an important element to this. People want to see parties united, not divided. All these elements are not present at the moment."

Brown also said he re gretted having not imposed tougher regulation on the banking system, saying he "didn't want Britain to be outside the mainstream". He had been under pressure to deregulate further, he said.

The Scot also said he had found it hard to focus on strategic planning because of the constant need to firefight crises, such as the banking problems.

Public spending would not be cut, despite some economists saying governments will be forced to tighten their belts to pay off debt built up during the recession.

"No. It's a myth," he was quoted as saying.

"Public spending will continue to rise. It's in our figures. We've costed it, and you're paying more in top rate tax to pay for it."

When he leaves politics, he would consider being a teacher, he said.

The prime minister's popularity has sunk to record lows since details of lawmaker expense claims were leaked to a newspaper last month.

The data showed that lawmakers claimed for items ranging from pornography to chandeliers.