91Èȱ¬

Prime Minister Gordon Brown dismissed yesterday's leadership challenge as a "storm in a teacup" as he was quizzed live on air by 91Èȱ¬ Radio Solent listeners.

In his first media interview since the challenge led by former cabinet colleagues Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, Mr Brown told presenter Julian Clegg that it had "taken up very little of my time" and "was a side line when we should be worrying about how people are coping with the weather situation."

Saying he spent yesterday "getting on with the job" he added: "I came out of Prime Minister's Questions and heard about this but had a whole series of meetings including meeting the widow and family of a Labour MP who died... (then) about the security situation in the Yemen, talking to the Secretary General of NATO... you've just got to keep doing your job. The most important thing was how people were dealing with the weather."

When asked by Clegg, in response to listeners' comments, whether he thought people had been quick enough to support him following the leadership challenge Mr Brown said his colleagues had put out statements but conceded: "There are always people who don't always agree with you. You can't always give people the policy direction they want. But most important thing is to get us out of recession... we are going for growth and jobs to help people in the future. This is a storm in teacup when we are dealing with real storms at the moment."

Mr Brown had intended to take part in a live debate with Solent listeners at Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower, but the visit was cancelled due to the weather. Instead he took listeners' questions via a digital link from Number 10.

Radio Solent is inviting the Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, for future debates.

Expressing his sympathies for those across the south region who had lost power or water, and were struggling with the roads and transport system, he said the Government was doing all it could to make sure the country could cope – from getting gritting salt to the places that needed it to supporting the health service. He also thanked both voluntary and emergency services.

But Solent listeners also had other things on their minds with questions ranging from why wasn't more done to sort out the MPs' expenses scandal to what was being done to help pensioners, including the release of extra winter fuel payments, to university funding and the impact on standards.

Angela, a mother whose son was going to serve in Afghanistan as a medic, asked for an assurance that he would have all the safety and transport equipment he needed, adding that she would be holding the Prime Minister personally responsible should anything happen to him. Acknowledging the commitment of Britain's armed services and the risks involved, Mr Brown said they had built up vehicle protection from mines and increased helicopter numbers. He added that "we do need to be in Afghanistan to keep streets of Britain safe", but that troops will be coming home.

Moving on to more personal matters, Clegg asked about the Prime Minister's interests. Saying he was a keen football fan, Mr Brown also found time to wish Portsmouth Football Club well despite their current financial woes and commented on Southampton's success.

You can hear the whole of Julian Clegg's interview with Gordon Brown on 91Èȱ¬ iPlayer.

Go to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/solent and click on the Jon Cuthill programme for Thursday 7 January (the interview starts approx two hours 15 minutes into the show).

HB