Gordon Brown ushered in the new era at Downing Street by telling staff at No 10: “Call me Gordon.”

His request to his new civil servants, who would by nature call him “Prime Minister”, evokes Tony Blair’s arrival ten years earlier.

Mr Blair’s own “call me Tony” moment was, however, misreported; he never, in fact, used those words. When chairing his first Cabinet in May 1997, Mr Blair told colleagues to dispense with the formality of referring to one another by their newly acquired titles and use first names instead, as they always had. “Call me Tony” was widely used in subsequent newspaper headlines.

But Mr Brown really did use such words. After arriving at No 10 and completing his first round of telephone calls with foreign leaders, the new Prime Minister addressed the staff.

He told them it had been an emotional day and he knew they had said goodbye to a great leader and a great family. He thanked them for the welcome they had given him and admitted it had been an “interesting day” for him.

“It’s not every day you meet the Queen at 1.30pm, become the Prime Minister at 2pm, speak to the President at 3pm, and get told by Sarah to put the kids to bed at 7pm,” Mr Brown told them, according to a Downing Street source.

“He also said he didn’t want to be called anything but Gordon.”

Mr Brown concluded: “Let’s work together.”

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