Jenkins urges Brown to drop PM ambition

Gordon Brown should abandon his ambitions to become Prime Minister to avoid becoming a "tail end Charlie" at the end of a long Blair administration, Lord Jenkins of Hillhead says today.

In an interview with The Independent, Lord Jenkins, arguably the most successful Labour politician to head the Treasury before Mr Brown, advises his successor to "settle for being a dominating Chancellor of the Exchequer" rather than pursuing his aspiration to succeed Mr Blair in the top job.

Lord Jenkins, now the Liberal Democrats' elder statesman and something of a mentor to Mr Blair, at least in his first term, says "history shows" that there is "no slot less rewarding than that of becoming Prime Minister at the end of a long period of government by your own party".

Lord Jenkins is a leading champion of British euro-entry, and criticises the Government's handling of the issue. He dismisses the five economic tests laid down by Mr Brown for British membership of the single currency as "rather a nonsense" because they "don't have great objective reality".

Mr Brown is widely seen as more sceptical on early British euro-entry than Mr Blair. But Lord Jenkins acknowledges that the tests have left the Chancellor "in a very powerful position, for I don't think you can win a euro-referendum with Gordon Brown on the sidelines".