Snubbed by Gordon Brown at the United Nations

Gordon Brown is a very angry man today. That much was obvious from my all too brief encounter with him this afternoon.

I was holed up in the tiny offices the British mission have here in the UN building along with political editors from BBC, ITV Sky and Five News. Waiting to take our turns at interviewing the PM about his week in New York.

His staff were edgy about how many questions there would about the supposed “snub” because he didn’t get a private meeting with President Obama.

So it was with obvious delight that they managed to stage a scene where the president deliberately walked out of the security council meeting chatting amiably with our PM.

Brown still looked like he was about to face a firing squad as he walked into the first interview. As the interviews progressed he was visibly irritated he wasn’t being asked about Iran’s nuclear programme or any of the other substantive issues he’s just been discussing in the council chamber.

I don’t know what Nick Robinson said to him in the 10 minutes he was inside the room – there was closed door between us – but Brown obviously wasn’t charmed.

As soon as that interview was over he burst out of the inner chamber, stormed through the outer office and marched out to chair a meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, leaving me and Adam Bolton of Sky News without getting our turn at an interview.

Adam will no doubt get one later – he’s travelling with the PM from here to Pittsburgh where we are all going to a G20 meeting tomorrow.

For us it was too late – our 7pm show came and went without me managing to grab even one word.

It’s a shame because I was the only journalist there planning to ask the PM all about Iran – the one thing he actually wanted to talk about.

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