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Gordon Brown vowed to bring back competitive elections in politics today, saying it had been wrong to discourage politicians from competing against each other.

The prime minister promised to extend the range of policies available to voters and revealed that a taskforce of the country’s female political champions would be set up to inspire more girls to participate.

“We want to encourage competitive elections in politics, not the ‘medals for Gordon’ culture we have seen in previous years,” he said. “It was wrong because it doesn’t work. In politics you get better by challenging yourself against other people. A lot of politics are team games where people have to work together but they play against other teams.”

Brown said the government had now begun to “correct the tragic mistake of reducing the competitive element in politics”.

(With apologies)