Brown gets tips from Blair

2008-05-10 14:09

London - Tony Blair has been advising his successor Gordon Brown on how to win the next general election, the former British prime minister's wife, Cherie, said in an interview with The Times out on Saturday.

"I know that Tony thinks Gordon could win the election and I know that he has spoken to Gordon about how he could do that," she was quoted as saying. "Tony has given Gordon advice. He and Gordon talk to each other even now."

News that Blair, a three-times general election winner, has been advising Brown is likely to be a surprise, given the alleged animosity the ex-finance minister felt towards his predecessor for not handing over power sooner.

Brown took over from Blair in June last year but despite a strong start has since slumped in popularity and last week led the governing Labour Party to its worst local election showing in 40 years.

An opinion poll published on Thursday suggested support for Labour had now fallen to a record low, with the main opposition Conservative party 26 points ahead and on course for victory at the next general election.

Mrs Blair's interview comes ahead of the publication of her memoirs, Speaking for Myself, which is being serialised in the newspaper over the coming week.

The book, looking back at her time at number 10 Downing Street, had been due to be published later in the year.

The Times said it provided "the most authoritative account so far" of why Blair decided not to stand down before the last general election in 2005 and the tensions between the Blairs and Brown, their next-door neighbour.

Mrs Blair, a human rights lawyer and judge who uses her maiden name Booth professionally, said Blair would have stood down before 2005 if Brown had been prepared to implement her husband's public service reforms.

Blair also had a "crisis of confidence" over the controversial Iraq war and feared he was an electoral liability. But he decided to stay on to fight for his domestic legacy, even though Brown was "rattling the keys above his head".

"Tony would have stood down, there is no question. Instead of which Tony felt he had no option but to stay on and fight for the things he believed in," she said.

Brown is widely believed to have sanctioned a mini-coup by his supporters in September 2005 that forced Blair, who had previously said he would not stand for a fourth term, to name the date of his departure.

Cherie Blair is said to have disliked Brown and at the 2006 Labour Party conference was alleged to have dismissed as a "lie" that her husband and his number two had a close working relationship.

But in extracts and the interview, she said she took no pleasure in Brown's current difficulties, despite admitting that "Gordon's impatience" to take over was one problem her husband could have done without.

- AFP