Anti-Brown speech gets 1.1m views

Gordon Brown smiled and took notes during Daniel Hannan's speech

More than a million people have watched internet footage of a South East England MEP verbally attacking the Prime Minister over the economy.

Tory politician Daniel Hannan told Gordon Brown he was the "devalued prime minister of a devalued government" at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

A clip of Tuesday's speech has been watched more than 1,1m times since it was posted on the website YouTube.

The footage shows Mr Brown smiling and making notes during the verbal attack.

During his three and a half minute delivery, Mr Hannan said: "When you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we're 'well-placed to weather the storm', I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line."

What caught their attention? To be honest, I'm slightly perplexed

Daniel Hannan

Watch the YouTube video in full

Writing on his blog for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, the Conservative politician said: "The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever.

"What caught their attention? To be honest, I'm slightly perplexed. I have been making similar speeches every week and posting them on YouTube for the past seven months."

More than 7,500 people have commented on the clip, including many from the US.

A spokesman for Downing Street said they would not be commenting on the speech.

In March 2008 a video supporting Hillary Clinton's campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, featuring clips from Jack Nicholson's films, was viewed more than 1.2m times.