I'm seven but I can sort out economy, Mr Brown

AS IF Gordon Brown didn't have enough on his plate.

Six months after the Prime Minister warned the Labour conference that "this is no time for a novice", he faces a challenge from a seven-year-old boy.

Ishan Baig has amazed his teachers by achieving grade B in his computing GCSE this week, nine years earlier than most pupils would attempt the exams.

And when he received his results he said: "I'd really like to be prime minister of the UK. I want to start learning about politics, the economy and the world and what people in the UK want."

Ishan, from Pinner, got his grades yesterday after taking the GCSE in Information and Communications Technology in January. He started the course aged five at Ryde Teaching Services in Bushey, Hertfordshire. Taught by Dr Mike Ryde, he found he loved learning about computers and was even excited by the exams. "He came out of the room skipping and dancing," said his mother Reshma, a 36-year-old management consultant.

Ishan, who attends independent Reddiford School in Pinner, lives with his mother, banker father Hussain, 37, and brother Zayn, five. A keen Manchester United fan, he is fascinated by politics and says he would set up his own "Sensible Party". Assessing the PM's record on the economy, Ishan said: "He is trying. He needs to try and stop the credit crunch. He should make sure the banks don't make such big losses ever again."

The best way out of the recession is to invest in climate change research: "I would want to make UK experts the world leaders on global warming. Then we could make other countries pay for our ideas and inventions to solve it." His party's policies would be pro-child - "Good education, parents with jobs and a safe country." He would also look into lowering the voting age to 12.

And Ishan shows signs of a populist streak that could prove him to be a future vote-winner: he wants to introduce a three-day school week.