LoungeMachine
09-06-2006, 10:33 AM
Time runs out for a master escapologist
By Toby Helm Chief Political Correspondent
(Filed: 06/09/2006)
Labour MPs who want to see the back of Tony Blair were losing their cool on Monday night. Expletives were flying down the phone lines. "He should the get the **** out of it now. That's what we all think," said one, claiming to represent the vast majority.
Angry letters were circulating, demanding that the most successful leader in Labour's history clear his Downing Street desk – and quick. In the early hours, ringleaders of the fledgling coup – many of them ex-Blairites – were totting up the names of fellow assassins recruited from the backbenches.
Would there be enough to force Blair out? "It is running out of control. No one has a good word to say about him," said another MP.
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Twelve hours later – in the cool light of day – the message was modified as tempers simmered down. "We are not saying he has to go tomorrow, just that he has to clarify his position – and leave soon," said a source at the centre of the plot.
The row is not so much about the timing of the handover to a new leader as the mechanics of how and when to inform the world that it is going to happen.
Mr Blair, the most brilliant exponent of presentational spin, is tearing himself apart over how to spin his own departure from office.
Anti-Blair MPs realise that in all probability they do not have that long to wait. They are fairly sure that the Prime Minister will be on his way by next spring or soon after, having served a decade at Number 10. That would be enough for Gordon Brown or whoever else succeeds Mr Blair to settle in before a general election.
They are right to be optimistic because the Prime Minister has been clear for months in his own mind that he will serve 10 years and then take his leave. Almost everyone will be broadly happy with that.
The disagreement is over how to get to next May without the row crippling the Government and party to such an extent that Mr Blair's successor inherits an unelectable wreck unable to keep David Cameron's Tories out of office.
Many Labour MPs, former ministers and even a good many current ministers want Mr Blair to announce later this month that this year's party conference will be his last. They want clarity.
Mr Blair could then call a leadership contest next spring and have his successor in place by mid-summer in time for a coronation at next year's annual gathering.
Mr Blair sees the problem as far more complex. He wants to reassure his MPs and the country that he is on his way, but without delivering so much clarity and finality that he immediately becomes a lame duck for the rest of his time in office.
The latest flare-up was triggered by an interview last week in which Mr Blair gave the impression – unintentionally it now seems – that he was determined not to respond to the anxieties of his MPs who wanted to know more about his plans.
He said he would not set a timetable for his departure and told the party to stop "obsessing" about the date. Sources now say he had not really set out to sound as defiant as he did. In fact he had wanted to do the reverse. But the wrong message got out.
It was a red rag to the "sooner rather than later" brigade. MPs, who had been assured by Mr Blair before the recess that there would be a "smooth and orderly" transition and told privately that they would be kept informed, felt they were being ignored.
Suspicions returned that Mr Blair might want to go "on and on" and that the real game was to keep Mr Brown out of power. Brownites were furious when Blair supporters effectively invited the Chancellor to show his mettle and dare to stage a coup.
Yesterday's events mean Mr Blair will almost certainly have to address the issue of timing before the conference, having said just a week ago he would not do so directly. If he refuses, MPs believe he will be jeered and booed in Manchester.
Tony Blair is a master escapologist. But time is running out for him. Unless he names his date soon his MPs will fix it for him.
The long goodbye
Telegraph Group Limited 2006.
By Toby Helm Chief Political Correspondent
(Filed: 06/09/2006)
Labour MPs who want to see the back of Tony Blair were losing their cool on Monday night. Expletives were flying down the phone lines. "He should the get the **** out of it now. That's what we all think," said one, claiming to represent the vast majority.
Angry letters were circulating, demanding that the most successful leader in Labour's history clear his Downing Street desk – and quick. In the early hours, ringleaders of the fledgling coup – many of them ex-Blairites – were totting up the names of fellow assassins recruited from the backbenches.
Would there be enough to force Blair out? "It is running out of control. No one has a good word to say about him," said another MP.
advertisement
Twelve hours later – in the cool light of day – the message was modified as tempers simmered down. "We are not saying he has to go tomorrow, just that he has to clarify his position – and leave soon," said a source at the centre of the plot.
The row is not so much about the timing of the handover to a new leader as the mechanics of how and when to inform the world that it is going to happen.
Mr Blair, the most brilliant exponent of presentational spin, is tearing himself apart over how to spin his own departure from office.
Anti-Blair MPs realise that in all probability they do not have that long to wait. They are fairly sure that the Prime Minister will be on his way by next spring or soon after, having served a decade at Number 10. That would be enough for Gordon Brown or whoever else succeeds Mr Blair to settle in before a general election.
They are right to be optimistic because the Prime Minister has been clear for months in his own mind that he will serve 10 years and then take his leave. Almost everyone will be broadly happy with that.
The disagreement is over how to get to next May without the row crippling the Government and party to such an extent that Mr Blair's successor inherits an unelectable wreck unable to keep David Cameron's Tories out of office.
Many Labour MPs, former ministers and even a good many current ministers want Mr Blair to announce later this month that this year's party conference will be his last. They want clarity.
Mr Blair could then call a leadership contest next spring and have his successor in place by mid-summer in time for a coronation at next year's annual gathering.
Mr Blair sees the problem as far more complex. He wants to reassure his MPs and the country that he is on his way, but without delivering so much clarity and finality that he immediately becomes a lame duck for the rest of his time in office.
The latest flare-up was triggered by an interview last week in which Mr Blair gave the impression – unintentionally it now seems – that he was determined not to respond to the anxieties of his MPs who wanted to know more about his plans.
He said he would not set a timetable for his departure and told the party to stop "obsessing" about the date. Sources now say he had not really set out to sound as defiant as he did. In fact he had wanted to do the reverse. But the wrong message got out.
It was a red rag to the "sooner rather than later" brigade. MPs, who had been assured by Mr Blair before the recess that there would be a "smooth and orderly" transition and told privately that they would be kept informed, felt they were being ignored.
Suspicions returned that Mr Blair might want to go "on and on" and that the real game was to keep Mr Brown out of power. Brownites were furious when Blair supporters effectively invited the Chancellor to show his mettle and dare to stage a coup.
Yesterday's events mean Mr Blair will almost certainly have to address the issue of timing before the conference, having said just a week ago he would not do so directly. If he refuses, MPs believe he will be jeered and booed in Manchester.
Tony Blair is a master escapologist. But time is running out for him. Unless he names his date soon his MPs will fix it for him.
The long goodbye
Telegraph Group Limited 2006.