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Blair said, ‘Let’s not talk about Iraq’

Blair said to me: ‘Let’s not talk about the war’

Mary Wakefield

Wednesday, 3rd October 2007

An interview with the novelist Robert Harris

So where did it all go wrong? ‘The thing that really ruptured my relationship with Blair was the second dismissal of Peter Mandelson, when he had to stand down as Northern Ireland Secretary,’ says Harris. But don’t party leaders have to stitch up their pals sometimes for the sake of the party? I ask. ‘It’s the way in which you do it that matters,’ says Harris. ‘No doubt Peter was highly difficult to control in the government, but what would have been the decent thing to do was to say, “This can’t go on, I suggest that at the next election you stand down.” But Blair’s panicky dismissal to protect himself, and the complete callous disregard for a close friend’s feelings....’ Was it cowardice? I ask. ‘Certainly intense selfishness,’ says Harris. ‘One of the charges against Tony, I’m afraid, is that he treats his friends very badly. He dumps them, which is odd really for such a professed Christian.’

In The Ghost the Prime Minister’s closest adviser, McAra, is pushed overboard a ferry and drowned when he becomes a liability. Is that a metaphor for what happened to Mandelson — pushed from the New Labour boat? Harris stretches out a tweed-clad arm — Harris tweed? — grins, and takes a sip of tea. Evening light filters in through the high Victorian windows and into the drawing room where Jane Austen, who visited Kintbury often, and this house once, must have taken her tea too. It would be difficult, I think, for Harris to look more like a Tory.

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