PM upstaged by a spider...

by Karl Walderman. Published Thu 04 Sep 2008 15:20

Mr Brown in Liverpool

It is the "stuff of nightmares" according to phobia experts and it turned into a public relations NIGHTMARE for Gordon Brown yesterday.

The Prime Minister arrived in Liverpool... only to be thoroughly IGNORED by a a waiting crowd in which all eyes were on the mechanical beast.

Mr Brown had travelled to the European Capital of Culture for a two-hour conference with North West businesses at the new BT convention centre on the waterfront.

But with time to kill the Labour leader made a surprise appearance at St George's Hall to greet the crowds who turned up to see the creature named "La Princess".

With hundreds braving the wet weather to get a look at the spectacle, Brown and his party were by the un-noticed by the crowd whose view was fixed on the spider dangling from Concourse House - a delicate building near Lime Street Station.

The mechanised monster costing #1.8m was commissioned as a free street theatre event from the French artists who brought 'La Machine' to London.

One office worker Katie Sullivan, 22 was stood yards from the PM and reckoned she didn't even know he was there.

Katie said: "I didn't even know he was here.

"I was standing at the back of the crowd and everyone had their eyes on the spider. I don't think anyone noticed him. No-one turned around to see him.

"Lets face it whats more interesting, a Scottish bloke in a suit or a 50ft insect crawling up a wall?

"I know what I would rather watch."