Gordon Brown comes out fighting for his leadership today and declares that his experience of personal adversity has made him the man to lead Britain through troubled economic times.

Breaking his silence on the crisis that is menacing his political future, Mr Brown tells his Cabinet that he will confront the current problems in the way he has dealt with his own troubles in the past.

In a rare show of emotion, he makes a reference to the death of his daughter a few days after she was born and the loss of an eye because of a rugby injury at school. Mr Brown writes: “My own response to the great challenges in my own life has been to confront them, resolute in the belief that there would always be something that could be done to overcome them. And there always has been.

“Now, once more, I am confident that we can come through this difficult economic time and meet these challenges a stronger, more secure, and fairer country than ever before.”

Mr Brown’s remarks are in the foreword, seen by The Times, to a report being prepared over the next ten days by the Cabinet for the party conference at the end of the month. They will be seen as a clear warning to Cabinet ministers and other critics that he has no intention of going quietly.

His critics have backed away from an early move to oust him, but say that they intend to strike if Mr Brown shows no signs of turning Labour’s fortunes around. His upbeat tone contrasted sharply with warnings at the TUC conference in Brighton of a winter of pay clashes between unions and the Government, and union calls for higher taxes on the rich and a windfall tax on the energy companies.

Ministers will receive Mr Brown’s words as they travel to Birmingham this morning for the first Cabinet meeting held outside London since the days of Lloyd George. Mr Brown calls in the document for a revival of national spirit to help Britain through the downturn. The presentation, prepared during his summer holiday, acknowledges the challenges facing Britain but is notably more optimistic than the controversial assessment by Alistair Darling in a recent interview. It is also a foretaste of his conference speech, which many see as a critical milestone in Mr Brown’s battle to survive.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary and the Prime Minister’s closest ally, accepted the importance of the moment yesterday. He said that it would be a great speech that had to show the party that with discipline, unity, steel and determination “we can go on and win”. Mr Balls said that Britain needed a “tough, resilient and determined” leader, who had had experience, and who “would not be pushed around on a daily basis by the media”.

Tony Blair, John Major and Margaret Thatcher had been behind in the polls in 2004, 1991 and 1986 and had managed to win general elections in the following years, he added. “They stuck to their nerve and stuck to the long term and came back to win and we can do the same,” said Mr Balls.

The Cabinet will discuss the state of the economy today at its meeting in the International Convention Centre, Birmingham. Cabinet ministers will meet 200 members of the public.

Civil servants’ leaders added to Mr Brown’s industrial relations problems yesterday by threatening three months of strikes over pay. The TUC conference will vote today on a tough motion calling for industrial action in the public sector to be coordinated.

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