Defiant Brown pledges to clean up financial system

British prime minister Gordon Brown today kicked off the Labour conference in Manchester with a promise to do “whatever it takes” to clean up the financial system and protect British jobs and savings.

Buoyed by a £1m (€1.26m) donation to Labour by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, Brown acknowledged he was going through “testing times” but insisted he was determined to continue to serve all the people of the country.

He sought to brush off speculation about a possible challenge to his leadership, telling delegates he did not want to talk about “that other stuff”.

And he promised to seek the return of £8m (€10.1m) transferred from Lehman Brothers offices in London to the USA shortly before the bank’s collapse last weekend, in order to ensure that workers including low-paid cleaners and computer operators get their wages.

Mr Brown received a generally warm response from activists, who appeared to have decided to put thoughts of rebellion on ice at least for the five days of the Manchester gathering.

The announcement of the gift from Rowling was carefully timed to sprinkle a bit of magic on Brown at the start of what had been billed as the toughest conference of his political life.

And the multi-million selling author gave the PM a political boost too, hailing his record on fighting child poverty and condemning Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s plans for tax breaks for married couples.

Recalling her own experiences as a poverty-stricken single mother while penning the first Harry Potter adventure, she said Mr Cameron’s initiative “sends the message that the Conservatives still believe a childless, dual-income, but married couple is more deserving of a financial pat on the head than those struggling, as I once was, to keep their families afloat in difficult times”.

“I believe that poor and vulnerable families will fare much better under the Labour Party than they would under a Cameron-led Conservative Party.”

A visibly delighted Brown – who described Rowling as “one of the world’s greatest ever authors” – told delegates Labour now had “the magical power of Harry Potter” behind it.

In a question and answer session dominated by the issue of the economy, Mr Brown made only one veiled reference to the debate over his leadership which has seen a minister resign and three other Labour MPs leave government posts.

“What a week. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it,” he said. “Not that other stuff, but a world economy changing almost by the day and almost by the hour.”

Speaking beneath the conference slogan 'Winning the Fight for Britain’s Future', he made clear that he believes last week’s chaos in the financial markets has drawn a clear dividing line between the Labour approach and that of Mr Cameron’s Conservatives.

In an apparent admission of Mr Cameron’s superior presentation skills, he told delegates: “At testing times like these, this is not about public relations and slogans and whether you have got the right language. The real test is of your judgment. The real test is of the choices you make.”

While Conservatives would have allowed Northern Rock to fail and would not have taken action to stop short-selling of financial stocks, the government took “the right decision” to protect jobs and savings and deliver a better financial system, he said.

Mr Brown said “global problems need global solutions” and confirmed he would be going to the US immediately after the conference to talk to financial institutions and governments about the crisis.

He joked that since Northern Rock and insurance giant AIG had both been taken into public ownership, Chancellor Alistair Darling was now the shirt sponsor for Newcastle United and the US government for Manchester United.

He told delegates: “When people ask what we will do to sort out the financial system and ensure there is responsibility and not irresponsibility, I tell you in three words: whatever it takes.”

“A testing time is not just a test of your judgment and your wisdom, it is also a test of your values. We could have taken the Tory position that the role of government is to leave people on their own to leave them isolated, to leave them defenceless, facing these great problems of change. Or we can do what we are doing.

“That is what every Labour Party member, but also what every citizen of this country, wants to do and that is to stand beside and with the people of this country and help them through difficult times.”

Mr Brown was boosted today by the publication of a letter from 20 MPs - including Jon Cruddas, who has been tipped as a possible future leadership candidate from the left of the party – urging their Labour colleagues to unite in the campaign for a fourth general election victory.

The man tipped as his most likely rival for the leadership, foreign secretary David Miliband, called on the party to “come together” behind Brown, while another potential contender, health secretary Alan Johnson, ruled himself out of a leadership bid, saying it was not a job he aspired to.

However, the UK government came under attack outside the conference when thousands of anti-war protestors marched through Manchester calling on Brown to withdraw British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Stop The War Coalition said more than 5,000 people joined the noisy protest, with marchers wearing Gordon Brown masks and some chanting: “We all live in a terrorist regime.”

Left-wing politicians and activists also launched an alternative conference of debates in a hall close to the conference centre, arguing that the British government was not tackling issues which affected the public.

Labour MP John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) said the left was attempting a “re-birth”, to challenge policies on jobs, housing and pay.

Trade unions will have the opportunity to criticise the British government’s decision not to impose a windfall tax on energy firms on the floor of the conference later this week, after a contemporary motion on the issue was accepted by delegates today.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said: “When it comes to Gordon Brown’s survival, ’whatever it takes’ seems to mean making up the opposition’s policies, hosting North Korean-style displays of unity and total amnesia about the fact that he was Chancellor for 10 years.

“He personally created the system of regulation that failed in the face of global crisis. When he treats people like fools, no wonder they treat him with dismay.”

Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh, who was sacked as a government whip after calling for a leadership contest, today said she was not backing down from her position.

Ms McDonagh said: “I’m not suggesting that we should be disunited, but I am saying I feel we should have a leadership election, because in order to have unity you have to be clear about your direction, your progress and your leadership.

“It’s not just me. That debate is going on. We can pretend it’s not existing, but it is.”