MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

PM Brown promises relief package for September

PM Gordon Brown

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised to deliver a package of economic measures for struggling Britons in September as he brushed off talk of challenges to his leadership and his party.

Brown, whose poor ratings have prompted speculation of a plot to oust him, said he was happy with his ministerial team and believed his Labour Party could win the next election, despite polls that put the opposition Conservative Party on track for a landslide victory. "We're getting on with the job," Brown said when asked if all his ministers were behind him. "I think you will find as we get into September that what the people of Britain are concerned about is what is happening to their mortgages, what is happening to their gas and electricity bills, what is happening to the oil price and the petrol price at the pumps," he told reporters flying with him en route to the Olympics in Beijing. "These are the issues they want us to address and look at. You'll see us dealing with some of these issues as we come back in September," he added, but would not provide any details of what the economic package might include. Ministers return to work in September after a summer break. The credit crisis, fears of a housing market crash, administrative blunders and widespread public disillusionment with an 11-year-old government have all contributed to a drastic slump in Labor's ratings which in recent months has been humiliated in three separate elections for single parliamentary seats â€" two in areas previously considered to be rock solid Labour territory. Some in Labour blame Brown and have publicly questioned his ability to win the party a fourth term in power. The government must call an election by mid-2010.