Blair's Labour is Brown

When British citizens go to the polls on Thursday, they will be deciding on not just one but quite possibly two Labour prime ministers. The first is Tony Blair, who has led the country since 1997 but has already announced that he will not seek a fourth term. The second is Gordon Brown, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer and for the past two decades Blair's most important partner and often his most bitter rival.

As young members of parliament, Blair and Brown helped reshape and modernise the Labour Party. As prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer for the past eight years, they have governed under an unusual agreement that has given Brown virtual autonomy with respect to economic policy. It is in part the economic record Brown has compiled that gives Blair, politically humbled over his alliance with President Bush on Iraq, the prospect of seeing Labour retain its majority in the next parliament.

Brown's reward is likely to be ascension to prime minister when Blair steps aside some time in a third term. Twice last week, Blair virtually designated him his successor. A key question for voters is what that eventual handoff will mean for Britain, for the Labour Party and for Britain's relations with the rest of the world. Another, more timely, question is whether a Labour victory will reignite the often-destructive competition that has long existed between the two but has eased during the campaign.

Faced with the threat of a much-diminished majority, Blair and Brown have found common cause on the campaign trail this spring, united in a determination to demolish their main opponent, the Conservative Party, and to warn Labour voters not to vent their frustration with Blair over Iraq by supporting the Liberal Democrats, who are running on their opposition to the war.

Repeatedly campaigned

Brown has repeatedly campaigned at Blair's side and on Thursday provided crucial cover for Blair on Iraq at a moment when the issue threatened to take over the campaign. With Blair under fire over a leaked document from spring 2003 in which his attorney-general questioned the legality of invading Iraq, Brown said the entire cabinet had concurred in the decision to go to war and praised Blair's leadership.

Asked whether he would have done exactly as the prime minister had done in going to war, Brown replied without hesitation, "Yes.''

Blair and Brown are strikingly different in style, with Blair the more charismatic and outgoing and Brown, an intellectual, often portrayed as dour and brooding. But in terms of public appeal, a role reversal has taken place this spring. With Blair damaged by Iraq, Brown is now more popular with voters. The Conservatives, apparently believing that Brown was seen as a symbol of the old left-wing Labour Party, briefly contemplated a campaign slogan, "Vote Blair, Get Brown''. They quickly dropped it when it became clear voters would be happy to get the chancellor.

The two Labour leaders' common mission this spring marks a truce in a relationship that has been strained since 1994, when the more senior Brown concluded Blair had betrayed him by seeking the party leadership. In government, their respective courtiers have carried on a leak-driven war worthy of the plots of Shakespeare's England.

Early in Blair's first term, a Blair adviser suggested that Brown suffered from "psychological flaws'' after the publication of a biography of Brown that was critical of the prime minister. As Blair's circle fumed over perceived acts of disloyalty by Brown, the chancellor seethed when Blair failed to step aside during the second term, as he believed Blair had pledged to do. Intercessions by other party leaders stemmed but never stopped the warring.

"They're incredibly close, they've known each other for a very, very long time … The interesting thing to me is they're working together at the moment more closely than they have at any time since '94. They may be doing it for their own reasons, but it isn't just appearances, it's in private as well as in public,'' said one Blair adviser, who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.

But Anthony Seldon, author of a biography of Blair, expressed scepticism that the campaign marked anything other than a marriage of convenience. "It's Stalin and Roosevelt during the Second World War,'' he said.

Their partnership has profoundly changed and benefited the Labour Party. Together, they have moved the party to the centre, embracing many of the economic changes instituted by the Conservative Government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Brown receives much of the credit for these accomplishments, given his vast powers over domestic policy.

- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service