Brown denies he’s backing Barack for the White House

mccain says obama quietly ditched policy which found favour in downing street

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Gordon Brown was yesterday at pains to stress his “admiration” for both US presidential candidates amid accusations he had taken sides in the upcoming election.

Britain’s prime minister said the poll in November was a matter “entirely for the American people” following Tory accusations he seemed to be favouring the Democrat candidate, Barack Obama.

Writing in Parliamentary Monitor magazine, Mr Brown said the Democrats were the party developing ideas to help people through the current difficulties.

He cited one of Mr Obama’s proposals to help families facing repossession, and did not mention Republican candidate John McCain.

But yesterday he said: “The decision in the American election is a matter entirely for the American people.”

He said of Mr McCain and Mr Obama: “I have a great admiration for both of these very distinguished senators. I repeat, the decision of the American people is the decision that will be the right one.”

But it was claimed by the McCain campaign yesterday that Mr Obama had changed his position on the housing policy praised by Mr Brown.

Mr McCain’s spokesman Michael Goldfarb said Mr Brown’s “coveted endorsement” was bound to highlight that Mr Obama “seems to have changed his position”.

Mr Goldfarb said that, according to Versionista, a programme which allows the McCain campaign to track changes to Mr Obama’s website, “Senator Obama quietly erased any mention of a Foreclosure Prevention Fund in late August. No new programme was offered in its stead. Whether this will cause Prime Minister Brown to rethink his support for Senator Obama remains unclear.”

A survey released yesterday also found that most people outside the US would prefer Mr Obama, 47, to win the race to the White House. The Illinois senator was preferred over Mr McCain by all 22 countries in the survey by the BBC World Service. He led the 72-year-old Arizona senator by four to one across the 22,000 respondents. Of those surveyed in the UK, 54% thought an Obama presidency would improve the US’s relations with the world.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said Mr Brown should not do anything to suggest he is taking sides, as he will have to work with whichever candidate wins November’s election.

Mr Hague said: “A responsible 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.”

Mr Obama came under fire from Mr McCain yesterday for comments that were “offensive and disgraceful”. Mr Obama referred to an earlier joke by Mr McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin who compared herself to a “pit bull in lipstick”. “You can put lipstick on a pig,” Mr Obama said. “It’s still a pig.” Yesterday, the McCain-Palin campaign said Mr Obama was only “ready to smear”, not lead. Mr Obama’s camp said the Republican camp was engaging in a “pathetic attempt to play the gender card”.