Sarah Brown stepped into the bullying row engulfing Downing Street yesterday in a sign that she will play a key role in the campaign to help her husband cling to power.
Making her most overtly political public remarks to date, Mrs Brown defended the Prime Minister against allegations that he has abused Downing Street staff and she attempted to depict his forceful personality as an asset.
"Gordon"s the man that I know and the man that I love," she declared in a TV interview.
Defence: SarahBrown joined her husband"s cheerleaders as she insisted he wasnot a bully and "what you see is what you get"
"People have heard me talk about him and they probably know everything that I would have to say about him. I know him as a strong, hardworking decent man and he isn"t anything else."
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In an apparent veiled swipe at Tory leader David Cameron"s carefully-cultivated public image, Mrs Brown said of her husband: "What you see is what you get with him."
Jibe: Minister Phil Woolas slammed National Bullying Helpline chief Christine Pratt as a "prat of a woman" as the row plumbed new depths
Labour strategists say Mrs Brown, a former PR executive, will beasked to follow in the footsteps of Michelle Obama and become herhusband"s election campaign "closer".
Mrs Obama was known as "thecloser" during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2008 for her abilityto win over undecided voters.
Allies of the Prime Minister are drawing up plans for MrsBrown to tour the country with him in the election campaign. She isalso expected to be asked to do solo events.
Mr Brown"s supporters hope she will help "soften the edges" of the Prime Minister"s dour public persona.
Her intervention in the increasingly poisonous row over claimsin a book by political commentator Andrew Rawnsley that the PrimeMinister bullied staff was seen as an indication of how seriously it isbeing taken in No. 10.
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"Gladys is coming on well. She"s a cleaner at 10 Downing Street"
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas blundered into the furorewith an attack on the chief executive of the National BullyingHelpline, Christine Pratt, who claimed to have received calls fromdistressed staff in Downing Street.
Playing on her name, and apparently insulting the town whereher charity is based, he said: "I think this attack on him (Brown) bythis prat of a woman down in - where"s she from, Swindon? - I thinkthat"s backfiring on her."
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