Brown takes centre stage in election campaign

Gordon Brown is to place himself at the centre of Labour's election campaign this week.

Link: Tories attack Brown over resource accounting

After speaking with Tony Blair several times a day over the past few days, it has been agreed that Brown - and the economy - will return to the heart of Labour's re-election campaign.

The chancellor will make a presentation to the Cabinet on Thursday and speak at a policy launch on Friday.

According to reports, this is designed to take advantage of the gaffe by Howard Flight, who suggested that the Tories were hiding the true extent of their planned public-spending cuts, and to signal that Brown and Blair are at one on Labour's strategy.

Brown's move comes as some Labour MP's campaigns are focusing on him rather than Blair - opting to use his photo in leaflets because they believe Blair is no longer trusted following the Iraq war.

Labour MPs and Cabinet ministers have been calling for Brown to be brought to the centre of the campaign for some time, but aides have said that there was no question of him replacing Alan Milburn, the party's election co-ordinator.