Gordon Brown's last month has been tough. Since the Telegraph started its coverage of MPs' expenses in May, the prime minister has lost six cabinet ministers and handful of junior ministers, carried out a rather compromised reshuffle and revealed that he charged the taxpayer almost £6,500 to green his second home in Scotland.
But in an interview I carried out with him days after the attempted coup against him, he seemed relaxed, calm not like a man under siege. "You have to take events as they come," he said when I asked him how he had been dealing with the tumultuous expenses crisis.
We spoke about the recession and the banks. Brown conceded that he wished he had imposed a tougher regulation regime on the banking system, but says he "didn't want Britain to be outside the mainstream" and had been under heavy pressure to deregulate further.
He also acknowledged that he "didn't know a lot about" banks buying up subprime mortgages during his period as chancellor, but that the global nature of modern banking meant such behaviour will "continue to happen".
On his surprising interest in reality TV, he said he thought Alan Sugar would help get the banks helping young entrepreneurs in Britain, and that reality programmes had shown people there was another avenue for making the most of their talent.
And finally, Peter Mandelson – does the Labour party now love him? Well, at least it is learning to appreciate his talents, Brown said.
