Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has refused to endorse the Labour party's new leader Jeremy Corbyn to be the next Prime Minister.
In an interview with Channel 4 News last night, Brown appeared increasingly irritated as he was pressed to give an opinion on Corbyn and moved to shut the conversation down.
When asked directly "would Jeremy Corbyn make a good Prime Minister," Brown replied " I'm not getting into that debate at the moment, I'm talking about family poverty... I'm sorry, we agreed to do an interview to talk about Family Poverty."
You can watch the video of Brown's reply below via Channel 4 News.
Brown did the interview with Channel 4 News shortly after making a speech that contained a thinly veiled dig at the credibility of Corbyn.
He didn't mention the Labour leader by name, but he warned the Labour party about returning to "first principles" and empahsised that power should not be "for its own sake," following their two election defeats. Brown said doing this was understandable, but the Labour party couldn't just stick by those principles and ignore becoming electable and credible.
You cannot deliver policies without principles you cannot deliver principles without having power. You have quickly to move to a stage where emphasising your principles, you build a programme then call for popular support. Making the desirable possible requires us to make the desirable popular, electable, credible and something that people want to hold on to.
Many will perceive this comment as an attack on Corbyn's refusal to embrace more moderate policies in order to win over voters.
Brown was articulating the fears of many MPs in the Labour party who hold more centrist political views than their leader, but Corbyn supporters unlikely to react positivly to Brown's message. Brown never won a general election.
