PM admits part in Labour's troubles

The party slumped to an historic low following a series of local election defeats that prompted fevered speculation about a possible leadership challenge to the Prime Minister.

Mr Brown said he was partly to blame but that tough economic circumstances had also played a part, and that it was his job to "take people through these difficult times".

Asked during his monthly press conference whether he took personal responsibility for Labour's troubles, Mr Brown replied: "Of course. I'm the person who is in charge and I have got to take responsibility for what happens.

"But I am explaining to you that if you go around the world, you will see that every country is affected.

"In fact when we saw the European economic numbers come out a few days ago we saw that Germany had gone down 0.3%, Italy had gone down, France had gone down, Spain had gone down, Ireland has gone down while we were not in that position at that point.

"So every country is facing these difficult circumstances but we have got a duty to take people through these difficult times and to show people that the policies we are pursuing, both to get the economy moving and to keep people in jobs - we are benefiting from the fact that we have got low unemployment, we have got low interest rates and we have got low national debt which enables us to borrow in a period of difficulty to take people through these times."

The premier made his comments at Downing Street as he announced a £1 billion package to promote energy-saving measures.

It followed a difficult summer which has seen Foreign Secretary David Miliband write a newspaper article widely seen as critical of Mr Brown, and Chancellor Alistair Darling admit that voters were "p***** off" with Labour.

But Mr Brown insisted Cabinet ministers were united. He also insisted he was right not to have called a general election last autumn, when Labour were riding much higher in the polls than they are at present.