Blobby Gordon Brown gets gaffe aide

On the day Gordon Brown turned orange it emerged that he has hired a former BBC producer to put an end to the visual gaffes that have dogged his time as prime minister. Nicola Burdett, 35, has been told to stop the embarrassing photographs and television foot-age that risk turning Brown into a figure of fun. The appointment has not come a moment too soon. A couple of days ago the prime minister was pictured at a summit of world leaders in Hertfordshire with a bright orange blob of make-up on his forehead.

The photographs - taken at the Progressive Governance Summit attended by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president - suggested that Brown might have deserted his make-up artist before she had finished.



“It also looks like his make-up woman only had Cuprinol orange,” said Claudia Croft. “Gordon should use something more natural to tone in with his pasty Scottish complexion.”

A No 10 source said: “We recognise there is a need to work more closely with visual media.”