Brown: “I address my job every day with new enthusiasm”

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

In a wide-ranging new interview with the Times newspaper, the Prime Minister has reaffirmed his enthusiasm for the job and thrown down a bold challenge to the Conservative challengers:

“We are prepared to take on any vested interest that stands in the way of better services. They exist not for public servants but for the people who are to be served – for the patient, parent and resident. Our first focus is how people can be better served in policing. Most people cannot afford private security. They want police to be in a better position to help them whether through identifying crime hotspots or through being able to phone police and get quick advice.”

Focussing on repairing the economy, the PM said:

“We will return to growth more quickly and we will probably have saved up to 500,000 jobs that would otherwise have been lost. People will see we have made a difference to the path of the recession…We have a growth strategy and a jobs strategy under which we will not allow young people to become long-term unemployed and, instead, we will ensure that that they are skilled and have the training necessary for them to get jobs in the future…We are investing more proportionately than many other countries. We are looking for private, public and international investment”.

He continued:

“The way to get the deficit down over the medium and long term is by creating jobs and growth. In past recessions, investment was cut. We have taken a different view. We will be judged by events…I think people will begin to see we have made a difference. I am fighting for growth and jobs all the time.”

In his challenge to Labour’s “opponents” he said the Tories have:

“No strategy for the recession…for growth…for new jobs. They had no plan to deal with the recession, not one genuine plan for taking us out. All other countries started to work on the same line as Britain, and the Conservatives were left isolated – just as they are isolated on Europe.”

“I have got a job to do – one that every day I address with new enthusiasm. I am not going to be diverted from the important task of getting Britain through difficult economic times.”