I am ready for Brown's job, Straw says

London: Jack Straw sparked fresh speculation about the Labour leadership on Saturday when he declared he was ready to become Prime Minister.

The Justice Secretary said that while he is not jockeying to succeed Gordon Brown he admitted he would be willing to take over if colleagues asked.

"If someone came and said 'sign on the dotted line', yes, I'd sign," he said.

In a frank interview, Straw also revealed publicly for the first time that he felt Tony Blair had sacked him as Foreign Secretary because he objected to US policy on Iran and the Middle East.

Straw also said that the government had got it wrong on plans to detain terror suspects for 42 days without charge.

The Cabinet minister emerged in a poll last week as the public's surprise choice to replace Brown, and colleagues are sure to see his interview as a clear bid to position himself for any coming race to succeed Brown.

Straw referred to an article in The Economist back in 1999 which stated: "This guy hasn't dropped a catch. He could be Prime Minister one day."

However, he stressed that he did not "yearn" to be premier.

"I have seen what it takes to do it, after working closely with Tony and with Gordon, and I know what it is to work at the Foreign Secretary level and the pressures therein. I can honestly say I have no ambitions in that area," he told the Daily Mail.

Straw dismissed claims that at 62 he is too old for the top job, saying he feels "somewhere between 80 and 35 depending on what's happening that day".

Straw said he regularly exercises in the Commons gym, including a "Body Blast" routine of aerobics with weights.

"I'm obsessed with exercise. It helps me think," he said.

He revealed he had been "irritated" when Blair sacked him from the Foreign Office after the 2005 general election.

- Evening Standard