Come Wednesday, there'll be a double handover at Downing Street. Out goes Cherie, in comes Sarah Brown. And what a difference it will make. Cherie has been outspoken, extravagant and a show-off. Since her marriage, Sarah Brown has been a self-effacing presence - metaphorically, if not actually, three steps behind her husband.
Yet Gordon Brown owes much of his present position to her. It's not just that it's next to impossible for an unmarried man now to become Prime Minister. More importantly, it would be near-impossible for someone like the prickly, aloof, slightly unkempt figure that Gordon Brown was before Sarah Brown transformed his public persona.
The PM-in-waiting is now a man who smiles readily if not convincingly and opens up like a flower to Mariella Frostrup about his taste in |
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The next PM owes his new smiley public image to his wife, ex-PR girl Sarah, says melanie mcdonagh |
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detective fiction. Credit for that goes to Sarah. When she first met Gordon Brown, Sarah Macaulay was half of the politically conscious PR company Hobsbawm Macaulay. She now has only one project - her husband.
If he hobnobs with Kylie Minogue, thesps and celebs, it's because she has deliberately expanded his social circle. She had no choice but to give up her job after she married - there was sour talk that her clients simply wanted access to him.
She too has undergone something of a transformation since becoming involved with Gordon Brown. When the Chancellor presented his last Budget, the attention focussed on her short(ish) skirt, sleek dark tights, and nipped-in jacket. "What a difference a year makes!" said the Mail, referring to her slightly dowdy look the year before.
But the transformation goes further back. Ten years before, she was  |
