'Err... there's a Mr Brown on the phone for you': Voters beware, Prime Minister is cold-calling

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It seems that he is taking his pledge to be the 'listening Prime Minister' seriously, and will be calling up to two dozen members of the public for a quick chat every week.

The lucky few will be chosen from the thousands who write to Downing Street.

Phone a friend: The Prime Minister regularly calls voters

However, it was reported in PR Week magazine that one of Mr Brown's recent 'cold calls' backfired. Without thinking, the workaholic Premier is said to have phoned an unsuspecting letter-writer at 6am.

Number 10 officials denied this claim, although they did confirm that the Prime Minister regularly calls the public at more sociable hours.

The phone plan was apparently dreamed up by spin doctor Stephen Carter to ' humanise' the Prime Minister.

One recipient of a Brown phone call, Wajid Rafique, said he was phoned on a Saturday afternoon when he was 'still in bed after a late night on Friday'. They spent around four minutes discussing a letter he had written about the Iraq war, he added.

Former minister David Blunkett said he thought calling voters at home was a good way to stay in touch with their concerns. But he added: 'Not necessarily very early, because I don't warm to that.'