Brown to offer fresh ideas

By Sumeet Desai - Analysis

LONDON (Reuters) - As the longest-serving chancellor in 200 years, Gordon Brown will hope he does not become one of its most transient prime ministers.

Last week's local elections underlined the challenge facing the 56-year-old Scot who is preparing to take over from Prime Minister Tony Blair after 10 years directing economic policy.

The Conservative Party captured 40 percent of the vote last week and a similar result in the next general election, expected in 2009, could put them back in power and make Brown's stay in 10, Downing Street the shortest since the 1960s.

Brown's capture of the top job should give the Labour Party's ratings a fillip -- new leaders usually do that.

But the polls suggest voters are tired of Labour and dismayed by Blair's prosecution of the Iraq war and a series of scandals suggesting financial impropriety.

"Gordon's biggest challenge is how to present him taking charge as a new start and give energy, impetus, momentum and fresh vigour not just to government, but also to Labour," said Alastair Newton, senior political analyst at Lehman Brothers.

"Gordon as much as Tony is parent to the Labour project and has presided over much of policy for the last decade."

Brown aides promise a new side to their man once he becomes leader. Freed from the confines of his Treasury brief, Brown will shake off his reputation for dullness, they say.