Gordon Brown

Alan Milburn has denied fresh claims that the chancellor has been sidelined from Labour's election campaign.

The party's election co-ordinator made the comments after fresh reports that Gordon Brown was "going it alone" on the campaign trail.

According to the Sunday Times, last minute arrangements had to be made for both Tony Blair and the chancellor to make simultaneous announcements last Friday on the increase in the minimum wage.

While the prime minister detailed the policy in Downing Street, Brown was making the same pledge at a press conference in Edinburgh.

Economy

However, Milburn denied there had been any rift over the issue.

"The announcement was made on Friday at Gordon's suggestion. We made it at a meeting I had with Gordon, with the prime minister, with Ian McCartney and John Prescott," he said.

On claims that the chancellor had been sidelined, Milburn said it was "complete and utter nonsense".

"Gordon is entirely central to this campaign. We are fighting this campaign with the economy centre stage. Gordon has an absolutely central part in it," he said.

"We have now got the strongest economy in Europe so it would be pretty odd if we didn't campaign on the economy and Gordon Brown wasn't part and parcel of it."

Meanwhile, a CommunicateResearch for the Independent on Sunday suggested that Brown would be a far more popular leader than Blair.

The survey puts Labour on 41 per cent, with the Conservatives on 34 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent.

However, with Brown as Labour leader the party's support would increase to 46 per cent, leaving the Tories on 31 per cent and the Lib Dems on just 14 per cent.