Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he is the right man to steer the country through difficult economic times.

He blamed "international factors" for rising oil and food prices and housing market problems and said he was taking the right action to deal with them.

Asked if he should stay in his job he said: "There are many people who could take over but I think I can steer this economy through difficult times."

"I have done it before and I can do it again," he told the BBC.

The prime minister, who faces questions at his monthly media conference later, is seeking to regain the political initiative after recent difficulties.

On Wednesday he set out his draft legislative programme for next year - a list of bills that he plans to bring into Parliament from November this year.

By-election battle

But the announcement was overshadowed by a raft of gloomy economic news and the governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King warning the "nice" decade was over.

The Conservatives and Lib Dems said the government's programme was an exercise in political survival after Labour's local elections losses.

All parties are campaigning in Crewe and Nantwich ahead of the by-election on 22 May, which is seen as a key to Labour's prospects of recovery, after its worst local election results in 40 years.

The prime minister is also under pressure to explain a surprise £2.7bn tax cut package unveiled on Tuesday, after earlier insisting there was no cash for such a move.

In an interview with Today, he insisted the tax cuts were not a short-term "fix" to get him out of political trouble, as other countries were also pumping money into their economies.

He also denied he had broken his own financial rules on only borrowing for investment, saying that applied to the entire economic cycle.

'World circumstances'

And he attempted to brush of criticism of his leadership style in memoirs by John Prescott and Cherie Blair, saying he did not listen to "innuendo and gossip".

He told interviewer John Humphrys he believed he was still the right person to steer the country through tough economic times, as he had done in his previous role as Chancellor.

"I have had experience in the last 11 years of building a strong economy. I think few people would deny that we have had a good economy over the last 11 years.

"The reason it's going wrong are international factors that we are going to deal with and I am probably best placed to deal with these issues because of what I know about dealing with other countries on oil and other issues and we are going to keep going.

"Of course there are many people who could take over, but I think I can steer this economy through difficult times and make sure we do the best by Britain in what are difficult world circumstances."

He said his priorities were oil prices, food prices, the housing market and "getting funds to business".

(BBC)

<< Back