British Finance Minister Gordon Brown's path to the premiership looked clearer on Thursday as one of the few remaining potential challengers hinted he would not stand against him, according to Reuters. Education Secretary Alan Johnson, a former postman and union leader who some in the Labour Party support as an alternative candidate, appeared to back Brown when he said Britain's next prime minister should have "experience, gravitas and intellect". "I don't possess any of these by the way," Johnson joked at a lunch with journalists. He repeated an earlier endorsement of the chancellor of the exchequer to be Tony Blair's successor, saying: "I think Gordon Brown would make an excellent prime minister."
