Despite the economic gloom, Gordon Brown appeared full of festive cheer today as he revealed he will be buying the X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's single Hallelujah as a Christmas present.
The prime minister, who is said to be a keen fan of the ITV1 talent show, said it was a great song.
"I think I will be buying the single as one of my Christmas presents. I think it is a great song. I happened to hear some of it on Saturday night," he told reporters at a Downing Street press conference this morning.
He voiced his support for the organ donor campaign launched by Alexandra's mother, the former Soul II Soul singer Melissa Bell, who is in urgent need of a kidney and pancreas transplant. "I have met her mother. She is leading a campaign that I also want to support for there to be donors," he said.
After handing out mince pies to journalists and urging them not to throw their shoes at him, Brown revealed he was sending "more Christmas cards then ever this year".
Asked whether there was too much pressure on parents to buy the latest toys at Christmas, the PM said that, as the father of two boys, he understood the excitement children feel at Christmas time.
And he insisted that as prices were coming down, "some presents are much cheaper than they were a few years ago".
