Britain's Brown to unveil government shakeup

London, June 28: Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown will name his government today, promoting old allies to top positions and bringing in a range of new faces to signal the end of Tony Blair's decade in power.

Trade minister Alistair Darling will succeed Brown at the Treasury and environment minister David Miliband, a critic of the Iraq war and once mooted as a leadership rival, will get the foreign affairs job, according to political sources.

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is widely tipped to become justice minister, partly to tackle a crisis in Britain's prison service, while Ed Balls, Brown's right-hand man at the Treasury, may take on education or a trade and industry brief.

Brown, who switched from finance minister to prime minister yesterday after Blair resigned, plans to announce his ministerial team ''about lunchtime'', his spokesman said.

Brown acknowledged he must meet a demand for change from an electorate growing tired with 10 years of Labour Party rule.

Top of Brown's list were changes in schools and in the state-run National Health Service. Many Britons remain unhappy with public services, even though Blair's government pumped billions of extra funds into them.

Brown will also try to respond to demands for more affordable housing in a country that saw house prices nearly triple during Blair's decade in power. He is expected to make several significant policy announcements in the coming weeks.

Speaking on BBC radio, Darling said how important it was to revamp the government and restore the public's trust.

''It's got to change. The public are sceptical of politicians in general. What we've got to stop is that scepticism becoming cynicism, which is wholly corrosive,'' Darling said, adding the ''number one priority is to be straightforward with people''.

He said voters should expect the new regime to cross party lines. ''You will see when the announcements are made later today that we will be reaching out beyond the narrow confines of our own party,'' Darling said.

REBUILD SUPPORT

Brown, who took over from Blair in a long-heralded arrangement, knows he must rebuild Labour support if he is to stave off a resurgent opposition Conservative Party and win the next election, due by May 2010 at the latest.

''As I have travelled around the country ... I've heard the need for change,'' Brown told reporters massed outside his new home at 10 Downing Street. ''Let the work of change begin.'' The target of much of the criticism of the health service, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, announced late yesterday she would leave government.

That allows Brown to put a new minister in charge of one of the most difficult portfolios and a popular Blairite minister Alan Johnson is tipped to take charge.

Home Secretary (interior minister) John Reid has also said he is stepping down and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett is expected to leave the cabinet.

Blair won three general elections, but he was undermined by the unpopular Iraq war and was forced by a Labour revolt last September to pledge he would step down within a year.

Blair also started a new career on Thursday after international powers named him their Middle East peace envoy.

REUTERS

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