If Gordon Brown pulls off a miracle for our ages and somehow wins this year’s election, expect the controversial claims about him being a bully boss to go away fairly quickly. Up until that election takes place however, it will clearly crop up time and time again.

Alistair Darling certainly didn’t help matters with his comments about hell being unleashed. He could have said something like: “It got a little bit rough back there” when talking about his assertion that the economy was in its worst state for 60 years following the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. It was a rough time. The point could have easily been made without all of this “forces of hell” stuff. Darling must have inwardly regretted it during the fake show of chumminess that he and his boss had to subsequently engage in during Prime Minister’s Questions.

But despite getting in a fairly good line about them being ready to kiss, Cameron couldn’t land a killer blow during the weekly tete-a-tete. He even had to duck for cover a couple of times himself. The leader of the opposition studied his tie intensely for about 30 seconds and, for once, had nothing to say when Brown referred to the opposition’s ‘offshore funding’ in a clear reference to the millions Lord Ashcroft has been pumping into the party. He is becoming increasingly unsettled by the increasingly obvious fact that, against all odds, Brown is making a fairly decent go of the most closely fought election since 1992. Over the past few weeks, the polls have been (slightly) kinder to him than they have at any time since the 2007 election that never was.

The truth about the allegations made in Andrew Rawnsley’s book is most likely that Brown is probably very grumpy and could possibly be prone to regularly losing his rag spectacularly. Yet, if he was really assaulting staff it would have probably sneaked out by now. As a weakened Prime Minister, it may have risen to the fore during one of the three coup attempts he survived over the past year or so. Britain’s favourite red top would have loved to splash such a story across its front page. Look how they made a mountain when Brown made some spelling mistakes when sending that letter of condolence to Jacqui Janes, whose son was killed in Afghanistan. It’s not outside the realms of possibility that they’ve been digging for something since switching their allegiance. A story about him being a workplace bully would have been perfect.

"The truth about the allegations made in Andrew Rawnsley’s book is most likely that Brown is probably very grumpy and could possibly be prone to regularly losing his rag spectacularly. Yet, if he was really assaulting staff it would have probably sneaked out by now."

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Words: Russell Myrie

Photo: Flickr user World Economic Forum