Gaffe? Britain's Brown hails Obama

British Conservative Party criticizes UK PM Gordon Brown for praising Obama's mortgage foreclosure prevention fund proposal.

By JPOSTLEO GIOSUÈCOM
gordon brown uk pm 224.88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
gordon brown uk pm 224.88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has praised US presidential candidate Barack Obama, seemingly breaching a protocol that prevents world leaders from endorsing candidates in foreign elections.
In a commentary published Wednesday, Brown hailed Obama's proposals for a mortgage foreclosure prevention fund and said he believed the US Democratic Party is the organization offering policies to help people through the current economic woes.
"In the electrifying US presidential campaign, it is the Democrats who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times," Brown wrote in Parliamentary Monitor magazine, a monthly publication that covers parliamentary and government issues.
"To help prevent people from losing their home, Barack Obama has proposed a foreclosure prevention fund to increase emergency pre-foreclosure counseling, and help families facing repossession."
Brown's Labour Party is traditionally allied to Obama's Democrats - but under international conventions, foreign leaders refrain from intervening in ballots overseas.
In meetings with both Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Brown has gone to great lengths to appear impartial.
During separate visits to London by the candidates, Brown refused to greet the men on the doorstep of his official residence - an honor reserved only for elected heads of government.
Brown's Downing Street office denied Wednesday that the article amounted to an endorsement of Obama.
"The prime minister is not endorsing a candidate, and never would," a spokesman said.
But Britain's main opposition Conservative Party said Brown was guilty of a serious gaffe.
"A responsible British prime minister needs to be ready to work with either presidential candidate after the US election, and should neither take sides nor be seen to be taking sides," said Conservative lawmaker William Hague, a former leader of the party.
McCain's spokesman Michael Goldfarb dismissed the apparent backing for Obama in a snippy Web posting titled "The Coveted Gordon Brown Endorsement."
He said that in praising Obama's housing strategy, Brown had in fact highlighted a policy that the Democratic Party candidate appears to have recently dropped. "Whether this will cause Prime Minister Brown to rethink his support for Sen. Obama remains unclear," Goldfarb wrote.