Brown rules out pre-poll splurge

Gordon Brown still harbours leadership ambitions

There will be no spending spree in the run-up to the next election, Chancellor Gordon Brown has promised.

With the election expected next year, Mr Brown is set to deliver his pre-Budget plans next month but says there will be no pre-poll gimmicks.

In a BBC News interview, Mr Brown also made clear he is still keen to become prime minister.

Britain needed a strong sense of its own destiny, he said as spoke about his mission for the country.

BBC NEWS: VIDEO AND AUDIO Watch the interview

The Conservatives on Tuesday unveiled options for cutting taxes, including taking more than a million people out of the higher tax rate.

The chancellor has argued the economy should be central to Labour's campaign for a third term in government.

Mr Brown said economic discipline was still at the heart of Labour's message.

Alan Milburn says social mobility must be key to Labour's message

"There's going to be no pre election giveaways," he said.

"What we've got to do, in my view, is show that the stability that has been achieved over the last seven years will not only be maintained but will be entrenched in the years to come.

"That's the main reason why we'll get investment in the future, our economy will continue to grow; jobs will be created and people will be more prosperous."

Tony Blair has announced he would serve as prime minister, if elected, for a full third term before stepping down.

Mission

Some commentators believe that was a harsh message for Mr Brown, making him wait longer for a chance at landing the top job.

The chancellor insisted he would not speculate about who held what job, saying: "I don't think it's the office you hold, it's actually what you do."

He said it was his job to alert people of the opportunities ahead for Britain for boosting jobs and improving enterprise, science, skills and education.

Pressed on whether he would be a candidate in due course to lead the country, he said: "Look I want to do what's right for the country.

"And I believe that we do have national mission, I do believe that as a country we need a stronger sense of our destiny as a nation.

"I do believe there are difficult long term choices that we've got to make and I can help make them."

Upwardly mobile?

Mr Brown added that there were many things he could do and would continue to do as chancellor.

But the remarks prompted Conservative chairman Liam Fox to say: "Yet again the energies of those at the top of government are concentrated on a leadership split instead of on running the country."

In a further sign of Labour's election tactics, Cabinet Minister Alan Milburn said getting social mobility moving again in Britain must be at the core of the party's ambitions for a third term.

Mr Milburn, Labour's election coordinator, said if anything, the gap between rich and poor had widened, nor narrowed in recent decades.

In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research, he said: "There is a glass ceiling on opportunity in this country. We've raised it, but we haven't yet broken it."

Housing ladder

Mr Milburn said Labour had lifted people out of poverty and its programme should focus on adult learning , childcare and education and sustainable communities.

And there also had to be a stress on getting more people to own assets, especially their own homes.

He pointed to new proposals to increase part rent, part buy schemes to help people onto the housing ladder.

But Conservative shadow local government secretary Caroline Spelman said Labour was all talk on housing and had "helped kick a whole generation of the housing ladder" through council tax hikes and abolishing mortgage interest relief.