Tetchy Brown vows he'll still be in charge at Christmas - and will fly back from Beijing to plan a Cabinet reshuffle

The Mail on Sunday has learned the Prime Minister intends to carry out the shake-up after next month’s crucial Labour Party conference.

Before leaving China, Mr Brown vehemently denied he faced the sack by Christmas and vowed to tackle the political and economic turmoil that has seen his poll ratings plummet.

Irritable: Gordon Brown is planning a cabinet reshuffle when he returns from Beijing

The growing pressure on him appeared to show during an interview with The Mail on Sunday, in which he refused to answer questions about his hopes of survival.

‘I’m happy to talk to you because you are here,’ he snapped. ‘I have given you special time.

'That is very good of me. You are very fortunate.

‘I am not going to do an all-round interview about everything that is happening in politics.

'People are less interested in personalities and more interested in policies.’

Mr Brown insisted that he would steer Britain through the economic downturn.

Asked if he was confident he would still be in a job by Christmas, he replied: ‘Of course.

'I am totally focused on only one thing and that is taking this country through these difficult economic circumstances.’

But his irritation grew when it was suggested he was ‘feeling the pressure’.

He observed sharply to an aide: ‘I was told this would be five minutes.’

Senior Labour sources deny claims by some Ministers that Mr Brown was forced to call off a shake-up expected this week after both Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is favourite to succeed him, and Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell refused to be moved.

However, this newspaper has established that the reshuffle will go ahead shortly after the Labour rally in Manchester, where Mr Brown hopes to launch his fightback by announcing a raft of new measures to deal with the economic crisis.

Mr Brown has been urged by some advisers to ‘neutralise’ Mr Miliband by giving him Chancellor Alistair Darling’s job.

‘Miliband would have less time to cause trouble or travel around the world grandstanding if he had to concentrate on sorting out the credit crunch,’ said one.

Chief Whip Geoff Hoon is in line for the sack after claims that he was ‘half-hearted’ in his attempts to make rebel Labour MPs vote for the detention of terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge.

MPs say that Mr Hoon’s deputy, Nick Brown, a devoted supporter of the Prime Minister, has effectively taken over as Chief Whip – and will get the title in the reshuffle.

Lacklustre Defence Secretary and part-time Scottish Secretary Des Browne is also expected to be dismissed.

Friends say he is ‘thoroughly fed up’ and has privately accused Ulster Secretary Shaun Woodward, the former Tory MP who has risen to become one of the Prime Minister’s closest confidants, of trying to grab his job.

The reshuffle, however, is a huge gamble.

If senior figures such as Mr Miliband and Health Secretary Alan Johnson refuse to budge, it would merely serve to underline Mr Brown’s diminished authority. Instead of averting a leadership challenge, it could lead to one.

Meanwhile a ComRes poll in today’s Independent on Sunday puts the Tories on 46 per cent,
21 points ahead of Labour on 25 per cent.