It was meant to be fightback day. But before long it was beginning to feel like groundhog day.

After the Government’s umpteenth bad Bank Holiday weekend Gordon Brown was ready once more to try to focus his Government and the country on key issues such as the economy and swine flu rather than his party’s internal problems.

He chaired a meeting of the Cabinet after a private chat with Hazel Blears during which they cleared the air over her outspoken criticism of the Government’s “lamentable” communications. She was believed to have apologised over her “YouTube if you want to” remark in a newspaper article, which was widely seen as mocking Mr Brown’s smiling, rather nervous internet appearance, explaining how he planned to reform MPs’ expenses.

With that out of the way, Mr Brown was due to visit a London school where he would announce plans to give parents more power over their children’s education. He also ventured back into the world of YouTube with a party election broadcast about tackling the recession. This sought to cast Mr Brown in a statesmanlike role, showing him hosting the G20 in London, addressing Congress in Washington, shaking hands with President Obama and touring Manhattan.

Expert View

Although lacking prolonged periods of facial oddity, the latest broadcast was not entirely free of Mr Brown’s unique grin

Francis Elliott

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For good measure Mr Brown and his ministers slapped down an overnight attempt backed by Labour MPs to boost the finances of the Royal Mail without resorting to a controversial sell-off of part of the business.

Mr Brown was trying to get down to business as usual, but he had reckoned without the intervention of his old friend John Prescott or the parents and teachers at the school.

In what was obviously a move to back Mr Brown, Mr Prescott helpfully described him as having the worst smile in the world. Just as Mr Brown was trying to forget the derision of his earlier YouTube appearance, the former deputy leader reminded the world about it. Worse, he aped Mr Brown’s smile with frightening results.

“I have worked with Gordon Brown for an awfully long time,” Mr Prescott said. “He must have the worst bloody smile in the world but the man has got the ability and the intellect to get on with the job.” He then pulled a face that guaranteed his own appearance on television and in most newspapers.

Things were little better for Mr Brown when he went to the school. First he was met by a group of parents protesting about plans to merge it with a nearby primary. One leapt in front of his motorcade and was bundled away.

Then Mr Brown somehow was allowed to be photographed in front of a wall with children’s images of the Second World War, including several swastikas, at Prendergast-Hilly Fields College in Lewisham, southeast London. The images were part of a school project entitled Life in Nazi Germany and there were other displays in the room, such as Life in Rome, but Downing Street defended its handling of the visit, arguing that it would have been a bigger story if it had asked the pupils to take their work down.

On policy Mr Brown had a better day. His plans to sell off a stake in the Royal Mail were still intact. But he is heading for another bruising confrontation with his backbenchers before the Commons summer recess.

Downing Street and ministers gave short shrift to a proposal from the Compass think-tank to turn Royal Mail into a not-for-profit company, under a similar model to Network Rail, rather than selling off at least a third to an overseas competitor, arguing that there were better ways to modernise the organisation.

Pat McFadden, the Postal Affairs Minister, immediately turned down the idea, saying that Downing Street had dismissed the suggestion as “unworkable and not under consideration”. The minister said that the Royal Mail needed “transforming”, partly because of its huge pensions deficit, not a “political fix”.

In a series of media interviews, the minister said that the Government wanted to keep the Royal Mail publicly owned as well as restoring it to “good health”. He pointed out that for every 1 per cent drop in post volumes, the Royal Mail lost £70 million, adding that the predicted fall was 7-8 per cent this year.

Mr McFadden acknowledged that more than 140 Labour MPs had signed a Commons motion against the Government’s plans, but said that he could not second-guess the parliamentary arithmetic.

“I understand this is difficult for some colleagues. We did not set out to pick a fight with backbenchers or trade unions, but we have a responsibility,” he said.

Mr Brown was also helped by a leak suggesting that the Communication Workers Union has instructed its members to boycott attempts to limit the postal services’ losses. Memos from the leadership of the CWU to local branches leaked to The Times appear to undermine its claims to support efforts to modernise the Royal Mail.

One, sent last month by David Ward, the CWU’s deputy general secretary, tells members to boycott cost-saving measures such as new machinery or new working practices. “We are instructing all branches not to engage in revisions or savings initatives,” wrote Mr Ward on April 2. The Royal Mail made a loss of £279 million in 2007-08, the last available financial year.

The union has repeatedly claimed to be ready to support any moves to update the postal service short of the partial sell-off.

Critics claim that the union, which has about 2,800 officials in the Royal Mail, is failing to address the crisis facing the business. But a spokesman for the CWU said that there was no contradiction between opposing “arbitary cost-cutting” measures and supporting efforts to bring the postal service up to date. “We stand by our commitment — we are ready to modernise the Royal Mail.”

Last night it appeared that Mr Brown would still have to rely on Conservative support to get the part-privatisation through. Kenneth Clarke, the Shadow Business Secretary, promised to back the legislation at all stages.

By last night Mr Prescott was out again backing Mr Brown.

“Gordon, and indeed myself, do not have the best smiles in the world,” he said, “but he is the best man for the job, making the big decisions to lead us out of this recession.”

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