Brown promises to be 'Blairite'

Mr Brown says he is not too old for the top job

Chancellor Gordon Brown has told the BBC he would run a Blairite administration if he becomes prime minister when Tony Blair steps down.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today he would lead a reforming Labour Party, which encouraged an entrepreneurial economy.

Pressed to say whether this meant a Brown administration would be Blairite, the chancellor replied: "Exactly."

He said, at 54, he would not be too old for the job, despite David Cameron, 39, likely to be the next Tory leader.

"I'm a father of a two-year-old child - I feel pretty young," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'Past it'?

He also said that William Hague had been an even younger Conservative leader but had lost the 2001 election.

Mr Brown spoke out the day after he admitted the UK economy was facing a "tough" year and he slashed his estimate of growth in 2005 to 1.75%, half his estimate in March's Budget.

The differences are not about personalities - the differences are about what policies people are going to pursue Gordon Brown

He said the UK economy remained stable despite high oil prices and slower house price rises.

He doubled North Sea oil profits tax, froze fuel duty and promised help for both pensioners and first time buyers.

He was also reacting to claims by shadow chancellor George Osborne that he was "past his sell-by date" and was "holding Britain back".

The Conservatives are set to name their new leader at 1500 GMT on Tuesday, following a six week campaign and a ballot of the party's 253,600 members.

But Mr Brown said the country had faced "Tory leader after Tory leader".

'Tory rebranding'

People judging Labour against the Conservatives would look at which could form a government that would maintain stability, secure economic growth, and build public services, he said.

"There is a rebranding of Conservatism taking place but it looks as if it is the same old policy that would mean cuts in public services."

He said he would continue the process of reforming public services and insisted that he and Mr Blair worked as a team.

Asked to explain his comment that a Brown administration would be Blairite, the chancellor said "whoever is in power" will be running a modern Labour Party and intensifying the pace of reform.

"What I am itching to do is build more houses, to get more people into jobs, to improve the New Deal, to have a more successful economy," he said.

'Fair' decision

"If the issues of personalities have got to be dealt with to make these things possible, then that's one thing that's got to be done."

He also defended his decision to double the tax on North Sea oil profits, which the industry said was "beyond comprehension".

Mr Brown said the move was fair because oil producers have "had a huge increase" in profits, with the average price of a barrel of oil rising from $25-55.

"The balance has got to be struck between the consumers who pay for fuel and the consumers who've got to pay for heating - and the producers," he told Today.

"I think I've done it in a fair way so that we can freeze fuel prices this year, we can give pensioners a winter fuel allowance each year of the coming parliament, we can bring in new incentives for energy efficiency and for environmentally efficient fuel."