Gordon Brown, who takes over as Britain’s Prime Minister tomorrow, vowed recently to revitalise the ruling Labour Party and learn from the “divisive” Iraq war. Brown will replace Tony Blair, who is retiring after 10 years in power with his popularity badly battered for joining in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Taking over as party leader on Sunday, Brown said Labour needed a soul to complement its policies. “As people’s aspirations and priorities change, we the Labour Party must renew ourselves as the party of change,” Brown, who has served as Finance minister for the past decade, told a Labour meeting in Manchester. “The party I lead must have more than a set of policies, we must have a soul,” he said to thundering applause.

He said health, education and ending child poverty would be his priorities when he becomes Prime Minister tomorrow.

Focusing his sights on a fourth straight term in power for Labour, Brown, 56, said the party needed to be “reborn” as it was under Blair to end its 18-year-stretch in opposition in 1997. He appointed a campaign coordinator to be ready for an election whenever he decides to call it but Brown has until 2010 – when Labour’s five-year term ends.