Did Blair want Charles Clarke to succeed him as Labour leader?
Peter Hoskin 5:11pm
Ben Brogan picks up on an interview with Charles Clarke in tomorrow's New Statesman in which the former Home Secretary claims Tony Blair wanted him to be Labour leader. Here' s the key passage from the interview:
All immaterial now, I guess. But an intriguing footnote to the Blair-Brown struggle nonetheless."[Blair] had a great plan, apparently, that he wanted me to be foreign secretary because he thought that if I had been foreign secretary and home secretary I would be a credible opponent to Gordon, as the leader of the party. And this had been his long-standing strategy, and that was what he had been intending to do, and that's what he hoped to do."
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Don
February 4th, 2009 5:27pm Report this commentIs this a joke? This man was totally useless.
David Lindsay
February 4th, 2009 5:50pm Report this commentWho cares?
Tariq
February 4th, 2009 5:57pm Report this commentImmaterial? Maybe not, now that the Brown bounce has proven to be of the dead cat variety.
NotaSheep
February 4th, 2009 6:22pm Report this commentThere are few men even less suited to being Prime Minister than Gordon Brown; Charles Clarke is one and David Blunkett is another. Actually come to think of it there is also Ed Balls, both the Milibands, Margaret Beckett...
Paul Linford
February 4th, 2009 6:26pm Report this commentErm...didn't Blair actually offer Charles Clarke the Foreign Office in 2006 when he sacked him as Home Secretary - and didn't Charles Clarke refuse on the grounds that he didn't think he should be moved at all? The man's recollections seem at odds with the facts as they were reported at the time.
DM
February 4th, 2009 6:37pm Report this commentIf Blair had had any sense he would have sacked Gordon Brown years ago. Instead he allowed his (inept and emotionally unintelligent) opponent to stay in a powerful position - screwing the country at the same time. Blair was always drawn by celebrity, money and his own legacy. Shallow, shallow, shallow. Nothing else in politics has ever mattered.
TrevorsDen
February 4th, 2009 6:59pm Report this comment"...would be a credible opponent to Gordon, as the leader of the party."
Is there a stray comma in here?
Methinks so. This is an interview remember.
Still wars have started over les.
Faceless Bureaucrat
February 4th, 2009 6:59pm Report this comment"[Blair] had a great plan, apparently, that he wanted me to be foreign secretary because he thought that if I had been foreign secretary and home secretary I would be a credible opponent to Gordon, as the leader of the party."
Pity he didn't have the 'cojones' to stand against Brown in the Leadership Election then.
Clarke has always lived in a kind of 'dream world' when it comes to his abilities as a politician - he often reminds me of the archetypal washed-up old Boxer slumped in the corner of a Pub repeating "I could have been something..." to anyone who might care to listen.
Someone should take him aside and whisper gently "it's over, Charles - time to start writing that Autobiography..."
mitch
February 4th, 2009 7:22pm Report this commentHa ha that's just big ears rewriting history again.
"I could have been a contender" ol blunkers will be saying it next.
luke
February 4th, 2009 8:34pm Report this commentam i alone in thinking charles clarke may have gone mad?
TrevorsDen
February 4th, 2009 10:02pm Report this commentHmm -- methinks not in the end. Looking again it seems to me I misread the word 'opponent'.
All of which of course makes you ask - just who is the more loopy? Blair or Clarke?
Austin Barry
February 4th, 2009 11:16pm Report this commentClarke is preposterous. Give him a pointed hat and a fishing rod and stick him on a toadstool outside the House of Commons. Destiny fulfilled.
Faceless Bureaucrat
February 5th, 2009 9:01am Report this comment@ Austin Barry
Ha, ha, ha...
Thank you - you just started my day with a smile!
Mike, Brighton
February 5th, 2009 9:38am Report this commentI'm surprised Charles Clarke can walk and chew gum at the same time. He was sacked from Blair's cabinet for being incompetent. Incompetent! It's like sacking a fish for being wet!
Rhoda Klapp
February 5th, 2009 9:45am Report this commentYour headline managed to get "Charles Clarke" and "succeed" in the same sentence. I suggest this is unprecedented.
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