Brown U-turn prompts Tory guffaws

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Gordon Brown was forced to make an embarrassing U-turn in front of laughing Tory MPs when he started to walk out of the Commons prematurely.

The prime minister had just finished his weekly question session when he was called to address the House again on government policy on Afghanistan.

But he was already halfway to the exit and had to return to his seat after colleagues pointed out his error.

Tory MPs waved their order papers and cheered loudly for several seconds.

'Close-run thing'

Following his 30-minute Q&A session on Wednesday, the prime minister made his way towards the exit behind Speaker Michael Martin's chair.

But as he was doing so, Mr Martin shouted out that there would be "a statement by the prime minister".

His former adviser Ed Balls, now children's secretary, reminded Mr Brown about the statement forcing him to halt and turn back as Tory MPs cheered loudly, holding up proceedings for a few seconds.

Mr Brown, just back from a whistle-stop tour of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland, laughed before pulling out briefing notes from a big folder.

He made no reference to his error in his statement on Afghanistan but Conservative leader David Cameron was unable to resist a jibe.

Opening his response, he said, to further laughter: "Can I thank the prime minister for making his statement today, though for a minute it was quite a close-run thing."