Clinton backs 'big-hearted' Brown

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Former US president Bill Clinton has given his support to Gordon Brown, saying the prime minister has a "big brain and a good heart".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme anyone would find it "difficult to maintain a very high level of popularity" amid economic troubles.

British people were "appropriately concerned" over their finances.

Mr Brown must "trust the people" to "make a good judgement" whenever he calls an election, Mr Clinton said.

The former president's support came after it was announced that Mr Brown would hold a special cabinet meeting outside London and put tackling "fuel poverty" at the top of his political agenda.

By-elections

This is expected to form a key plank of the prime minister's political fight back later this summer, along with a cabinet reshuffle and the publication of an economic recovery plan.

Mr Brown has been dogged in recent months by poor opinion poll ratings and the loss of Crewe and Nantwich and Glasgow East by-elections, as well as the London mayoralty.

I wouldn't predict Gordon's demise too quickly Bill Clinton

Speaking to Today from an international Aids conference in Mexico, Mr Clinton - a close friend of Mr Brown's predecessor Tony Blair - said he had known Mr Brown for 20 years and was still in contact.

He added: "I think anybody would find it difficult to maintain a very high level of popularity when average people are having the problems they are having today in the UK and the US with the soaring price of gasoline and the cost of living going up.

"I wouldn't predict Gordon's demise too quickly. I think he is just in a period where circumstances have got the British people appropriately concerned about how to get from day to day, week to week.

"The only advice I would give him is that he has got a big brain and a good heart - he just needs to apply them both to working through these issues as best he can and trust the politics.

"Just trust the people to, at whatever time he stands for election, to make a good judgement. You get one of these jobs - the best politics is to do the job."

Mr Clinton, who won US presidential elections in 1992 and 1996, also called for more to be done to hold down the cost of drugs to help the battle against HIV.

Figures released ahead of the meeting show the number of people with the disease worldwide has decreased slightly, but around 33 million are still affected.