British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, squaring up to the world’s economic emergency on Friday, drafted stalwarts from Tony Blair’s era to bolster his Cabinet as he warned drastic action was needed to tackle the downturn.
In a grave warning over the extent of global economic woes, Brown said sweeping changes were required to handle the effects of high oil prices, the worsening credit crunch and doubts about the banking system.
“The global economy will never be the same again,” Brown said, announcing a major shake up of his Cabinet and the creation of a new economic crisis council composed of ministers and business leaders.
Turning to Blair’s trusted hands represents a serious blow to Brown’s pride, after he confidently promised a decisive break with his predecessor’s tenure when he took office last June.
“We are taking special action in unique circumstances,” he told reporters, predicting that “every country in the wor ld” will follow Britain’s lead in focusing on the economy.
In a move that shocked his governing Labour Party, Brown recalled Blair’s key ally — and Brown’s own long time foe — Peter Mandelson, from a post as Europe’s Trade Commissioner and appointed him as business secretary.
Mandelson previously twice quit Blair’s Cabinet amid scandal and is known for his often frosty relations with the current British leader.
“Third time lucky?” Mandelson asked reporters, breezing into Downing Street with a typically mischievous grin.
A former Northern Ireland secretary and trade secretary, Mandelson is being appointed a House of Lords peer to allow him to rejoin Britain’s Cabinet without winning a place in parliament at an election.
“Our economy, like every other, is facing a very hard challenge as a result of the global financial crisis. In a sense it’s all hands on deck,” Mandelson said.
Brown also brought Blair’s ex-defense chief, Geoff Hoon, back into the Cabinet as transport secretary and made his predecessor’s longtime ally, Margaret Beckett, the new minister for housing.
“I want to bring into the government all the expertise that can help us,” Brown said. “Serious people are needed for serious times.”
Business leaders including Victor Blank, the chairman of Lloyds TSB, Vodafone chairman John Bond, and Chris Gibson-Smith, the chairman of the London Stock Exchange, are among advisers appointed to help stabilize Britain’s financial system.
Brown accepted that his new national economic council — which will meet twice a week — had the ring of a wartime crisis committee.
“Call it what you will,” Brown said. “Quite simply, the new era that we have entered requires new ways of governing.”
Paul Myners, a former chairman of British clothing and food retailer Marks & Spencer, was appointed minister for the City — London’s financial district.
In other major changes, John Hutton replaces Des Browne as defense secretary and Ed Miliband, brother of Foreign Secretary David Miliband, enters the Cabinet as head of a new department for energy and climate change.
Lord Drayson was appointed science minister — a year after quitting Brown’s team to follow his dream of racing in the Le Mans 24-hour auto race.
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