'I take all the blame' says Brown on election that never was

The Prime Minister put himself through a day-long ordeal with the media, the Commons and his own backbenchers to try to regain his battered credibility.

He looked uncomfortable as he tried to take the sting out of claims that he is a "bottler" by admitting it was his mistake that handed the Tories a propaganda coup.

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And he conceded that he should have ended speculation about an early election well before it ran out of control.

"I could have made it earlier, perhaps I should have made it earlier, but I decided I would make my statement at the end of the party conference season," he said.

Mr Brown's reputation suffered a blow on Saturday when polls showing a sudden Tory lead forced him to drop plans for going to the country next month.

It left the Conservatives triumphant and fuelled doubts about his claim to be a "conviction politician" who puts the country above party politics.

But Mr Brown's attempt to draw a line under the affair by letting his critics pummel him appeared to have paid off.

Attention moved to his statement on an Iraq pull-out next year and today's publication of the Government's threeyear spending review.

Mr Brown told his monthly press conference in Downing Street: "The fact is I take responsibility. I take the blame. I take the decisions. If anything goes wrong, it comes back to me."

He added: "Yes, I did consider holding an election. Yes, I looked at it. My first instinct, if I were honest with all of you, was that I wanted to get on with my job of putting my vision of what the future of the country was to the people of the country and deliver on it before there was ever an election."

He claimed his feelings had always been against a poll, but that aides and some MPs defending marginal Labour seats had pressed him to go early. Labour would have won an election, he added.

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"I looked at what people were saying. I heard from candidates in marginal seats - they were telling us we would win the election. I believe we would win at any time.

"We had had a summer dealing with issues from foot and mouth to floods to terrorism to economic and financial crisis.

"I had not yet had a chance to put forward my vision about health, about housing, about education, about the future of our economy and prosperity generally, and that is why I made the decision I did."

Mr Brown refused to admit that he called off plans for an election announcement today after polls showed the Tories had pulled ahead.

However, he conceded: "Obviously I saw the opinion polls."

He insisted he would have made the same decision even if polls showed Labour would win a 100-seat majority.

Asked whether the situation had been handled well, Mr Brown joked with reporters: "I think your weekend has been better than mine."

Labour MP Des Turner, who is defending a marginal seat in the south of England, said Mr Brown had made the right call but added: "I wish he had made it clear slightly sooner.

"It has put a question mark over Gordon's solidity and judgment, but I think it will only be temporary."

Hendon MP Andrew Dismore endorsed the decision to put off an election, but added: "It's a pity it wasn't made a week earlier, and a week is a long time in politics."

Mr Brown survived a potentially awkward encounter with his backbenchers at the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party.

They questioned him about what one described as 'the mess' of the past week, but focused on how to salvage Labour's position.

• British ministers will boycott the EU-African summit in Portugal in December if Robert Mugabe attends, Mr Brown said.

The Government was not prepared to give any sign that it condoned the Zimbabwean dictator's regime.

"We are not prepared to sit down at the same table as President Mugabe," said Mr Brown.