 | 'Mr Brown will understand the significance of losing a safe seat in his backyard. He lives in the constituency and represents the adjoining seat of Dunfermline East. The chancellor antagonised Labour colleagues in the Scottish executive with what they saw as heavy-handed attempts to intervene in the debate over tolls and the need for another bridge across the Forth: matters reserved for the devolved parliament.' Christopher Adams and Andrew Bolger in the Financial Times, 11 th February 2006. |  |
Gordon Brown will seek next week to put behind him the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election defeat, in which he had a high-profile campaigning role, promising more public money for the war against terror.
In a speech on national security on Monday, he will announce plans to make extra funds for the intelligence services a priority in next year's spending review, pledging to create "a modern Bletchley Park" - the second world war intelligence centre - for investigators tracking terrorist finances.
Mr Brown came under fire from gleeful opposition parties yesterday after the unexpected loss of the previously safe Labour seat to the Liberal Democrats, and admitted that there were "lessons to be learnt" from the result.
The defeat is acutely embarrassing for the chancellor, whose heavy involvement in the campaign had been expected to help repel the Lib Dem challenge.
Mr Brown has been used to shoring up support for Tony Blair. But Thursday's defeat has raised questions over his public appeal and whether, if he takes over as prime minister, he can expect to carry Labour to another general election victory against a resurgent Conservative party under David Cameron.
There was no disguising the scale of the defeat, which surprised even Willie Rennie, the victorious Lib Dem candidate. Mr Rennie said the result, a 16 per cent swing that turned an 11,562 Labour majority into a Lib Dem majority of 1,800, would "rock the foundations of Downing Street".
The chancellor defended Labour's efforts, saying it had fielded a strong candidate and fought a hard campaign "dominated by local issues".
There was general agreement local factors were significant. The Lib Dems campaigned strongly on issues such as tolls on the Forth Road Bridge and the condition of the town centre.
The Labour candidate, Catherine Stihler, showed how out of touch she was with the mood of the constituency when she warned supporters on polling day that if they stayed at home "they risked waking up to a Scottish National party MP on Friday morning". In fact, the SNP came third.
The Lib Dems received an unexpected boost from the visit by Charles Kennedy, his first after stepping down as leader of his party after admitting a drink problem. His dignified but humorous demeanour during a walkabout was well received, and many Scots appeared to feel he had been treated harshly by colleagues.
But for all his efforts to deflect the blame, the chancellor will not be immune to criticism. He and Alistair Darling, Scottish secretary, had the highest profile roles in the campaign.
Mr Brown will understand the significance of losing a safe seat in his backyard. He lives in the constituency and represents the adjoining seat of Dunfermline East.
The chancellor antagonised Labour colleagues in the Scottish executive with what they saw as heavy-handed attempts to intervene in the debate over tolls and the need for another bridge across the Forth: matters reserved for the devolved parliament.
His efforts to talk up the transformation in the Fife economy were undermined by the announcement of 700 redundancies at the constituency's Lexmark printer cartridge plant.
The view in Westminster was that any repercussions were likely to be limited to the chancellor's home territory in Scotland.
But his speech on Monday will, nevertheless, be an important one, giving him a chance to reassert his leadership credentials.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, he will range widely from his economic brief, championing Labour's commitment to national security needs and the armed forces. He will talk of the need to strike a balance between security and liberty and between stronger laws to tackle terrorism and more rigorous oversight of these powers.
Mr Brown will announce a number of new steps, including a review of measures to stop charities from being abused by those financing or inciting terror, tackling abuse of bureaux de change and wire transfers, guidance to banks on identifying suspicious transactions, and stronger measures on freezing assets.
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