PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday his family helped him cope with the pressures of his job, denying reports that he took it out on office equipment when he was angry.
Media reports earlier this year, denied by Brown’s office at the time, said he threw mobile phones around the office when he lost his temper.
Asked in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live if he had thrown typewriters or photocopiers around, Brown said: “I don’t think there are any typewriters anyway, I think they went out a long time ago … No, I don’t. It’s just nonsense.”
Brown, who has faced strong pressure over the economic crisis and the British mission in Afghanistan, said his wife Sarah and two children helped him cope with the stress.
“I have got a great family and a great wife and we are a very, very strong family,” Brown said in the interview recorded in Trinidad and Tobago, where he was attending a Commonwealth summit.
“I get up in the morning and I say to Sarah `We have got to deal with all the new challenges that this day brings.‘ Every day brings new challenges and every day you are tested. That’s what the job is about,” he said.
“I can’t wish away the financial crisis, but I can deal with the consequences of it. I can’t wish away the fact that we are in Afghanistan with a job to do. I think we are doing the right thing,” said Brown, who faces an uphill battle to win a general election due by next June.
“No matter what criticism you get, you have to remind yourself that this is a responsibility you are discharging on behalf of the British people. Whatever criticism there is, you have got to get on with the job,” he said.