Prime Minister makes Surprise Visit to Liverpool

The Prime Minister chose Liverpool's BT Convention Centre as the location for a surprise speech on the British economy today (Thursday September 4). 
 
Gordon Brown made an impromptu appearance at a conference hosted by the North West Development Agency (NWDA).
 
He was greeted by Bob Prattey, chief executive of ACC Liverpool , alongside Phil Redmond, of Liverpool Culture Company and Steven Broomhead, from the NWDA.
 
The Prime Minister was speaking at the event only days after Chancellor Alastair Darling warned the country is facing the worst economic slowdown in 60 years.
 
Mr Brown, who was making his first visit to Liverpool in its Capital of Culture year, told an audience – including Culture secretary Andy Burnham and senior MPs Jane Kennedy, Yvette Cooper, Beverley Hughes and Louise Ellman - of plans to reinvigorate the region’s economy.
 
Bob Prattey said: “This was an extremely high profile visit bearing in mind the subject matter of the Prime Minister’s speech in the current economic climate.
 
“By their very nature, visits by VIPs, such as Gordon Brown, are often unscheduled and arranged at short notice.
 
“However, due to the nature of the building and our extremely experienced staff, ACC Liverpool , has the flexibility and capability to deal with last minute arrangements, such as additional security and providing facilities for the media.”

 
ACC Liverpool consists of the 10,600 seater Echo Arena and the state of the art BT Convention Centre.
 
The latter features a 1,350 seater auditorium, a 3,725 square metre multi-purpose hall, 18 meeting rooms and total exhibition space in excess of 7000 square metres.
 
The facility’s partners are Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, national regeneration agency English Partnership, the European Objective One programme and the NWDA.