It's OK, Gordon Brown isn't retiring

Any Conservatives who might have been worried that their greatest electoral asset, Gordon Brown leading the Labour party, might be about to resign on the grounds of ill health can cheer up. The Telegraph report that:

"Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has brushed off suggestions that he should quit ahead of the general election, declaring: "Of course I'm going on."

Unconfirmed reports have suggested Mr Brown might use ill-health as an excuse for standing down before the poll, and former Cabinet minister Charles Clarke said he should go "for his own dignity".

But in an interview for the New Statesman magazine, Mr Brown said he was "pretty determined and resolute" to carry on.

...

Asked about his leadership, Mr Brown said: "Of course I'm going on. I mean, for goodness sake, I wouldn't be having this interview with you if I wasn't determined to get my message across to the British people.

"I hope that people will see by my actions the determination I have to work not just on behalf of the Labour Party but on the behalf of the British people."

Challenged to give a "cast-iron guarantee" that he will lead Labour into the election, he responded: "The issue at the moment is that the Labour Party has to take this country through a very difficult time and I think we'll be judged by results.

"I've got a job to do ... So I'm pretty determined and resolute."

He dismissed recent reports that his predecessor as prime minister saw him as "a quitter, not a fighter" who might duck the election, telling the New Statesman: "I don't think Tony Blair has ever said that." "

There is of course one fly in this ointment; can we really believe a word Gordon Brown says?