Brown's defiant message

A defiant Gordon Brown today pre-empted Tony Blair's reshuffle by effectively refusing to be moved from his powerful Treasury empire.

The Chancellor used a BBC radio interview to make clear he would not tolerate being ordered to become Foreign Secretary.

At the same time, Mr Brown also made clear he was impatient for the Prime Minister to retire - and twice refused to say he was happy to stay for another five years without a change. His comments will be read as an open challenge to Mr Blair's authority over his Cabinet.

The Evening Standard yesterday disclosed that one unnamed Cabinet ally of Mr Blair is calling for the Chancellor to be shuffled to the Foreign Office, where he would lose the power to dictate other departments' affairs.

But Mr Brown today said he was only interested in a post which let him develop policy on employment and public services. "I'm interested in getting on with the job and whatever I can do in employment or, alternatively, in improving public services, in whatever position I'm in, I think that's really what public service is all about," he said.

Some MPs will interpret the phrase "whatever position I'm in" as a signal he could leave the Government if frustrated by Mr Blair's refusal to retire.

Interviewer John Humphrys twice asked Mr Brown if he would be happy to stay in his current job for another five years. In an undisguised display of irritation, Mr Brown refused to answer, saying only that he was "happy doing my job".

But he insisted: "I'm not interested in position."

Labour MPs will see his comments as a deliberate warning he would quit rather than be sidelined. His remarks will also be seen as a hint he might move on if Mr Blair refuses to retire, depriving Labour of the clear frontrunner to succeed Mr Blair.

They came as a strike by civil servants loomed over Mr Brown's jobs purge and as Labour MPs joined union leaders in demanding talks with the Chancellor over his pledge to axe 104,000 posts - about a fifth of the civil service.

The Public and Commercial Services Union claimed the cuts would cause "carnage", while Labour MP John McDonnell said: "A hundred thousand job cuts is not to be taken lightly."