Gordon Brown Takes the Crown... Ed Balls and George Osborne relive the sliding doors moment that could have changed the course of British history - the 2007 election that never was.
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EPISODE 1: Gordon Brown had sat in Tony Blair’s shadow for over a decade. But suddenly, in the summer of 2007, he had his chance. As Blair stepped back, Brown stepped up - from Number 11 to Number 10 - without a single vote being cast. On the 27th June, he visited Buckingham Palace, and accepted the invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government.
His first three months were somewhat chaotic. Before his first PMQs, he was dealing with terrorism attacks in London and Glasgow. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease came soon after, as did flooding across the country. And then came the runs on Northern Rock, the canary in the coal mine of the impending financial crash.
George and Ed go 'Inside The Room' with Deborah Mattinson, Gordon Brown’s chief pollster. Deborah and Ed were inside many of the same Labour war rooms together, as trusted lieutenants of the former Iron Chancellor, and they recall these positive early days of the Brown premiership.
George, meanwhile, takes us inside the Tory camp of that era and David Cameron’s struggle to land effective blows against Brown. We also hear from Andy Coulson, the Tory head of communications during that period.
Producers: John Rogers and Miriam Hall
Technical Producer: Danny Pape
Executive Producers: Ellie Clifford and Dino Sofos
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