QAC Buzz

As Gordon Brown seems to stagger from crisis to crisis, reeling like a punch drunk boxer waiting for the coup de grace, he faces opposition politicians lining up to attack him at every opportunity. The sensitive issue of terrorism, and how to combat it, had previously been a subject that gained cross-party support but contrasting statements from the Prime Minister himself and a senior party figure has seen him become embroiled in yet another political storm.

Only yesterday, Prime Minister Brown declared that the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was “the number one security threat” to Great Britain. With unfortunate timing however Lady Glynis Kinnock, Foreign Office minister and wife of former part leader Neil Kinnock, announced less than 24 hours later that cuts are being made to the counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan.

The Liberal Democrats Foreign Spokesman, Ed Davey MP, called for an urgent statement from Gordon Brown: “It is unbelievable. This is shambolic. They have got to reverse these cuts and they have got to explain why they have got this whole thing in such a mess.”

In Lady Kinnock’s statement to the House of Lords she explained that cuts had to be made as the weakness of the Pound had left the Foreign Office dealing with the an estimated budget shortfall of £110million. This explanation was greeted angrily by opposition parties however.

The Conservative Party were quick to voice their outrage. Tory grandee William Hague MP stated: Cutting FCO expenditure on counter-terrorism programmes in Pakistan because of the movement of exchange rates is clearly not the way to run an effective foreign policy.”

Even senior labour politicians seemed surprised by Lady Kinnock’s statement. Baroness Royall, party leader in the House of Lords, said she was shocked as counter-terrorism in Pakistan should be of the ’utmost importance’. Former Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells MP said that he was not surprised by the content of the statement but by its timing.

With the General Election looming ever closer, timing is of the essence for the Labour Party and it would be expected that Labour ministers would be under severe pressure to bury bad news, or at least to hide it until after the election. It could be that Lady Kinnock has adopted the same ability to shoot oneself in the foot that her husband Neil demonstrated on so many occasions. With this statement likely to be received very badly by the general populace, and to be seized upon by the media red tops, it is not surprising that opposition parties are rubbing their hands at yet another Labour gaffe. We can be assured that in the coming months no subject, not even terrorism, will be off of the political agenda.