Brown has a 'good' crisis as world follows his lead

To the casual observer, Gordon Brown could have been the guest of honour. There were smiles, handshakes and slaps on the back for Britain's Prime Minister as French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed him to the Élysée Palace in Paris. Watched by a guard of honour, the men paused briefly on its steps for photographs before hurrying inside for talks on hauling Europe's financial system out of the mire.

But originally, Mr Brown was not even invited to the talks between the 15 nations that have adopted the euro as their currency. As the scale of the international economic meltdown became obvious, however, it became impossible to exclude him.

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By virtue of his decade as Chancellor and his network of contacts on the world stage, he has ended up leading attempts to avert global financial collapse. Mr Brown is now pushing other major economies to follow Britain's lead and take a stake in their major banks. The Americans have already taken on elements of the Brown blueprint. And the Continent now appears to be on side too.

The Prime Minister has been in constant touch with world leaders over the past week, carrying several mobile phones as he juggles international and domestic calls. He will repeat the case for a UK-style bail-out at a European Council meeting in Brussels this week that is certain to be dominated by the economic turbulence.

His confidence and assurance is even now leading previously gloomy Labour MPs to wonder whether a domestic electoral bounce could be an unlikely side-effect of the crisis.

It marks an extraordinary turnaround for Mr Brown, whose very survival in Downing Street was recently being measured in months, if not weeks.

Nothing he touched seemed to go right. Dismal Labour performances in the Crewe and Nantwich, and Glasgow East by-elections and May's local council elections followed the decision to scrap the 10p rate of income tax.

The package to revive the housing market was met with a national yawn of apathy. His enemies within the party began to circle and talk of forcing him out by Christmas. And then the credit crunch turned toxic, killing off any immediate threat to his leadership and casting Mr Brown in a new light.

Downing Street sources bridle at the suggestion he is enjoying leading the fight to save the world's banks from ruin. One said: "That is absurd. These issues are far too serious."

But there is no mistaking the new vigour and sense of purpose in Mr Brown's demeanour. It showed last week in a comfortable victory over David Cameron in Prime Minister's Question Time and in the quip he made about banks failing when the ringing of a mobile telephone interrupted a speech. A Whitehall source said: "The last thing the public would want to see is a Prime Minister under pressure or stress."

Aides say he has been working almost full-time on the crisis, only breaking off on Friday for a rare theatre trip with his wife, Sarah.

Although detailed decisions are being taken by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, the Prime Minister is providing "direction and leadership", they say.

There are signs that Labour support is picking up in the opinion polls, although there is little cause for panic in Tory ranks: they still enjoy double-digit leads over the Government.

No one can know whether the Prime Minister will receive any lasting dividend from his handling of events last week. The country's economic health next year will be far more important.

And one former minister sounded a warning regarding Mr Brown's ability to continue turning round Labour's fortunes. He said: "Gordon is doing very well now he is acting as a Chancellor again, but he will have to be Prime Minister again in a month or two."