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Brown taking tips from Blair despite past differences: Cherie
One of the enduring stories of British politics is that the deal for Blair to go first was sealed at a meeting at the Granita restaurant in north London.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:37 May 10, 2008
London: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his back to the wall after a drop in his Labour Party's popularity, is taking advice from his predecessor Tony Blair despite their old rivalry, Blair's wife said.
In interviews with two newspapers published on Saturday, Cherie Blair said Brown was "rattling the keys" over her husband's head when he suffered a crisis of confidence in April 2004 over his decision to take Britain to war with Iraq. "I thought he was putting too much pressure on Tony to quit when Tony wasn't ready," she told the Sun.
Brown took over in June 2007 after a tempestuous 10-year relationship with Blair during which he ran Britain's finances as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
But unpopular income tax reform, rising fuel and food prices, a downturn in the housing market and an image problem led to big losses in local elections that have cast doubt on Brown's leadership.
A YouGov poll on Friday put Labour on 23 per cent with the Conservatives on 49 per cent which would guarantee a defeat for the ruling party if elections were held now. Brown must call an election by 2010.
She said Blair was advising Brown despite their past differences. "I know that Tony thinks Gordon could win the election and I know he has spoken to Gordon about how he could do that."
She said Blair would have stood down earlier than last year if Brown had been prepared to back him on key reforms. "Instead of which Tony felt he had no option but to stay on and fight for the things he believed in," she said. The disclosures came ahead of the publication of her memoirs Cherie Blair: Speaking for Myself.
Tony Blair considered not running for a third term as British prime minister but his wife and others persuaded him that standing down would be seen as an admission that he had been wrong about the Iraq war, she says in her autobiography.
"Among many others, I was convinced that if Tony failed to stand for a third term, it would be seen as a response to the negative criticism of the war," Cherie Blair wrote in Cherie Blair: Speaking for Myself. Excerpts were published yesterday in The Times and The Sun newspapers.
"It would be read by history as a tacit admission of failure. ... I always felt strongly that he should not apologise for something he believed to be right. He could regret the lives lost in Iraq but he should not apologise for taking the right decision for the country."
One of the enduring stories of British politics is that the deal for Blair to go first was sealed at a meeting at the Granita restaurant in north London.
Not so, Cherie says.
The two men were leaders of the so-called modernising wing of the party, and when Labour leader John Smith died in 1994 Blair and Brown were the leading candidates to succeed. Discussions between the two men began soon after Smith's death, she wrote, but she suggested that the deal was made at the home of her sister, Lyndsey Booth.
"It was always a given that they would work in tandem and that when Tony stood down Gordon would take over. Tony also made it clear to Gordon that he had no intention of staying leader forever and that when he did stand down he would support Gordon as his natural successor, assuming they worked well together ... in the meantime," she wrote.
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