Shirley Williams defends Gordon Brown

24/02/2010

But veteran politician blasts Westminster – it's 'the pits'

Veteran Liberal political Shirley Williams has come out in support of Gordon Brown following several days of attacks on the PM over bullying claims.

“Gordon Brown has always been extremely polite to me,” she told The Big Issue, “but maybe that's because I'm an old statesman these days.”
 
The former Labour cabinet minister and co-founder of the SDP, now a Peer, also said that Gordon Brown’s style was comparable to the 'hairdryer treatment' favoured by fellow Scottish boss Sir Alex Ferguson. 
 
Williams was less complimentary about the current state of the House Of Commons, comparing the punch and judy aspect of debate to a badly run football club. She claimed this adversarial style, illustrated most readily by Prime Ministers Questions, was driving women MPs from parliament and disillusioning the electorate.
 
“A lot of women leave parliament because they can't stand the adversarial attacks and the Prime Minister Questions style that characterises our politics, which is the pits as far as I'm concerned,” she said. “It's like badly run football club that's out of control. I think we'll lose a lot of women in this next election simply because they don't like the way politics is conducted. I don't think it's very helpful.”
 
She added: ”I think we're in serious danger of putting the electorate off, against the background of a parliament that doesn't function very well."

During heated exchanges in Prime Minister’s Questions today, Gordon Brown vigorously denied he had told to his office to unleash “the forces of hell” on Chancellor Alistair Darling. It had been claimed that Darling’s forecast of the worst recession in 60 years, coming in 2008, had precipitated fury from number 10.

Tory leader David Cameron said Brown and Darling were at war with each other, something denied by the PM.