A top candidate to challenge Gordon Brown as Prime Minister has given his backing to his under-fire boss.
Speaking exclusively to lep.co.uk, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said he believed the future of the Labour government was with the former Chancellor at the helm.
The PM has come under further pressure after losing the Glasgow East by-e
lection last week.
Mr Purnell was speaking at an event at the Holiday Inn Preston to speak at an event organised by business group, Downtown Preston in Business, on Tuesday.
The cabinet member said: "I think we are a good government and need to win back the support of people that our record of making Britain a better place and that it is better under a Labour government than a Conservative one."
Asked whether he saw Mr Brown at the helm, he said: "Yes, Gordon is an extraordinary politician with amazing economic and political experience and I think everyone recognises that."
He spoke to an audience of business leaders about welfare reforms which will see unemployed people facing losing their benefits if they fail to make an effort to look for a job.
The Greater Manchester MP is tipped at 10-1 by the bookmakers to succeed Mr Brown, with Blackburn MP Jack Straw also among the frontrunners at 11-2.
See Wednesday's Lancashire Evening Post for morea about Mr Purnell's visit>> Vote in our latest web poll
