Gordon will do the job very well

13 September 2006

Michael Foot led Labour to defeat in 1983, the year Blair and Brown entered Parliament. He tells John Reynolds why Iraq was a catastrophe and why Brown will be a great PM

‘I think he’ll do the job very well,’ he adds, leaving little doubt that he sees Mr Brown as the inevitable heir â” and the sooner the better. It is perhaps strange that, for someone who favours debate and diplomacy, Mr Foot sees no need for these qualities in a new party leader. Nor does he seem concerned that the Chancellor’s seriousness and his obvious bitterness will put voters off. But then Mr Foot is an intellectual, and the antithesis of the image-conscious politicians of today, as he himself would happily admit. ‘The age of the agitators has gone,’ he wrote in 1965, ‘and that of bureaucrats, political technicians and public relations officers has succeeded.’

By now, Mr Foot is tired and keen to finish our interview. ‘I’m going to have to throw you out, I’m afraid,’ he says, firmly but politely. As I gather my notes, he thoughtfully gives me a book of his essays to take with me, before walking me to the front door.

John Reynolds is a freelance writer based in Ireland. Michael Foot’s and Alison Highet’s biography of Mr Foot’s father, Isaac, published by Politico’s, goes on sale on 18 September.