Gordon Brown was 'more of a champagne socialist than Blair'

Ed Balls has described Gordon Brown as 'much more of a champagne socialist than Tony Blair', revealing it was hard to pick a way through the piled-up boxes of cheap fizz when entering his flat.

The Good Morning Britain presenter, who was economic adviser to the former chancellor, made the claim while contrasting the two former Labour prime ministers.

Mr Brown was Chancellor during Mr Blair's premiership between 1997 and 2007 before becoming PM himself.

While Mr Brown was regarded as the more left-wing Scotsman, Mr Blair was seen as appealing to gentrified middle-class professionals.

But speaking on the Walking the Dog podcast, Mr Balls says their political views were closer than people thought, and Mr Brown was more of a champagne socialist in a literal sense.

He said: 'Gordon was as New Labour as Tony in his politics — and Tony was the MP for Sedgefield.

'He (Tony) was much more of a Londoner than Gordon, and culturally, and part of his appeal was — even though he was a Scot like Gordon, Tony — his appeal was to that sort of southern metropolitan swing voter.

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'The thing about Gordon was he only drank champagne. He never wanted a gin and tonic or glass of white wine or red wine.

'Champagne was his drink.

'You go into his flat in London, very near Westminster, and it was hard to get in the door because when you went in the door there was kind of one whole wall of boxes four high by six across of some cheap champagne he'd bought in a job lot, and there it sat.

'So he was much more of a champagne socialist than Tony Blair as it were.'

However, Mr Balls did admit that Mr Brown fitted more with his established image when he and Mr Blair agreed on Labour's leadership partnership over a meal at the Granita restaurant in Islington, north London in 1994 — three years before the party's landslide election victory.

Mr Balls, who was with them for the early part of the meal, recalls: 'The famous Granita dinner where supposedly Gordon Brown and Tony Blair decided that Gordon would pull out for Tony in 1994, Granitas in Islington, Tony booked the table and was there first, so that Gordon would arrive to his meal. 

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'Gordon didn't really want to be there at all. A shooshy Mediterranean restaurant in Upper Street was not really Gordon's idea of a night out.

'We go in and we look at the menu. Gordon turns to me and says, "What exactly is polenta?"

'Then Tony ordered chiparones, which Gordon had never ever had before, but I think Gordon thought they were small sausages.

'I went back to meet the rest of Gordon's team and at nine we had a call on the mobile phone, and it was Gordon who said, "I'll be there in 15 minutes, well done steak".

'Gordon had his meal with Tony and then came down to have steak and chips because clearly it didn't do it for him.

'Gordon would have chosen a Chinese (to meet Blair).'