Book exposes Blair, Brown

2008-05-11 14:13

London - Tony Blair repeatedly broke promises on making way for Gordon Brown as Britain's premier, leaving a "furious" Brown exploding like a "volcano", Blair's former deputy premier said in comments published on Sunday.

John Prescott blew the lid on the long-running feud at the very top of British politics in his autobiography, serialised in The Sunday Times newspaper.

Prescott branded British Prime Minister Brown "frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly", saying he could "go off like a bloody volcano" and sulked so often during meetings that they had to be abandoned.

Self-confessed "old bruiser" Prescott, 69, was Blair's deputy and Brown his finance minister for 10 years until Blair finally resigned in June 2007.

Smoothing out spats

Prescott said he spent much of his time in office as a peacemaker, with "hundreds" of telephone calls and meetings smoothing out the pair's spats.

Brown stood aside for Blair when he successfully ran for the Labour Party leadership in 1994 - long rumoured to be on the understanding that Blair would step aside for Brown to take over during a second term in office.

But Blair repeatedly reneged on promises to make way, Prescott said.

"He was definitely going in, er, six months, perhaps a year, certainly before the next election. When it never happened, Gordon was furious and the whole cycle began again," he said.

"Each of them tried to get me on his side, complaining about the other. Tony would say Gordon wasn't co-operating with him at all. Gordon would say he'd been cheated again."

Go-between Prescott told Blair to sack Brown if he was fed up with him and advised Brown to resign if he felt he had been misled, he said.

"But neither could take the final step.

"They were caught in their own trap. Tony knew that sacking Gordon would tear the party apart."

Brown "always asked that, every time - when are you going?

"Then Tony would lay down certain conditions: he'd say, 'Look, if we can get this done, win this election, do that'... and then afterwards it didn't happen.

"Gordon believed Tony had said he'd go halfway into the second term. Tony denied it."

In Blair-Prescott-Brown meetings, there were "always tensions in the air", the former deputy prime minister said.

"Gordon would get in a sulk and say nothing, leaving all the talking to me, so these meetings petered out."

Prescott - who famously had no problem punching a demonstrator in 2001 - said the pair "hadn't lost control of their emotions. They weren't about to belt each other.

"Gordon could go off like a bloody volcano, but Tony doesn't like the full-frontal approach. It puts him off his tea," he said.

Brown was initially popular on taking over but a recent mauling in local elections and abysmal opinion polls have left his premiership reeling.

- AFP