LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown has  bared his soul to Britons in a television interview in which he  speaks about the death of his infant daughter and his hopes for  his son who suffers from cystic fibrosis.

Political commentators said the interview was a significant  change of tone for the 58-year-old Brown, often portrayed as  buttoned-up and more comfortable reeling off economic statistics  than talking about his emotions.

Brown has also faced accusations that he is prone to violent  temper tantrums, claims that resurfaced this week in a book by a  former Labour Party aide.

“I think it’s a necessary and potentially successful means  of remedying one of Gordon Brown’s historical deficiencies. He’s  been too one-dimensional,” said Andrew Hawkins, chief executive  of pollsters ComRes.

Brown must call a general election by June. His Labour  Party, in power since 1997, trails the opposition Conservatives  in polls but the gap is narrowing.

In the pre-recorded interview, to be broadcast on Sunday  night on ITV’s “Piers Morgan’s Life Stories”, an emotional Brown  speaks of his grief over the death of his infant daughter  Jennifer Jane in January 2002.

“You know, she would be 9 this year and, you know, you think  all the time of the first steps, and the first words and the  first time you go to school, and it’s just not been there,”  Brown said.

Brown, the son of a Scottish church minister, has two sons.  The younger one, 3-year-old Fraser, suffers from cystic  fibrosis, a condition that can reduce life expectancy to around  40 years. In the interview, Brown said he was confident that  medical advances could help his son.

Cameron’s loss

Opposition leader David Cameron, 15 years Brown’s junior and  a smoother communicator, lost his disabled son Ivan a year ago  at the age of 6.

In his keynote speech to his party conference last October,  Cameron said his grief had made him question whether he wanted  to continue with his political career.

Brown, who was finance minister for 10 years, has never led  Labour into an election, having replaced Tony Blair mid-term in  2007 after Labour’s third successive election victory. In the  interview, Brown says that he clashed with Blair when they  worked together, confirming reports of an uneasy relationship.

During the forthcoming campaign, party leaders will take  part in televised debates — a first for Britain.

Blair was particularly adept at capturing the public mood in  his statements and media appearances, although his critics said  he ultimately ended up opting for softer, personality-based  interviews rather than discussing details of policy.

Steven Fielding, professor of political history at  Nottingham University, said that opening up in this way could  carry risks for Brown.

“When Gordon Brown first became prime minister, they made a  virtue of a return to old-style politics — there was even a  poster: ‘Not Flash, Just Gordon’.”

Fielding said Brown’s appearance on a TV show that normally  interviews celebrities from the world of entertainment and sport  was a concession to modern tastes in politics.

“It’s a kind of gesture. Because of the presidentialisation  of the (role of) prime minister, people want to know more about  the person.”