Gordon Brown on Covid -19, recession and Trump: ‘When there’s a crisis you have to act qiuckly’

Author:
Gaby Hinsliff

The former PM on his sympathy for Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer’s leadership – and why the US president’s approach to global health is an act of self-harm.

From the window of his home study, Gordon Brown looks out across the waters of the Firth of Forth, towards the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle. It is a precious glimpse of open horizons, in a world closing in.

The former prime minister is holed up here hitting the phones in search of what he considers the missing piece in the coronavirus jigsaw: a coordinated global pooling of resources against the pandemic and accompanying recession. No government can honestly claim to be doing “whatever it takes” – the chancellor Rishi Sunak’s refrain, echoing the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, during the 2012 euro crisis – unless it coordinates with governments worldwide, he insists to me over the phone.

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