Speculation about the length of Tony Blair’s tenure returned this month, after reports emerged of a Brown-Prescott secret “summit”.

After John Smith’s memorial service it was reported that the two politicians snuck to a seafood restaurant for a covert tete a tete.

The meeting sparked a frenzy of guesswork in the press about the imminence of Brown’s  succession, which was encouraged by Prescott, who said that “tectonic plates” in the party were shifting.

The prime minister said he had no intention of “cutting and running,” Alan Milburn said that Blair’s appetite was “undiminished”, and Charles Clarke said that the PM “absolutely believes that, not only he should stay, but moreover that he has a major role to play in leading the party and the country for the foreseeable future”.

Speculation

But nothing could stop a barrage of media speculation.

A Brown meeting with Murdoch at Number 11, and the Chancellor’s scheduled audience with the Pope, spurred on hacks, who said Brown was elevating his profile and consolidating his support.

The PM also had problems on the international front.

The government was vindicated after it emerged Daily Mirror POW photos were hoaxes. But British unease at the different American “approach” to the war, boosted opposition groups.

Flour bomb

And then to top it all off the prime minister’s was struck by a flour bomb, in the Commons.

A Fathers 4 Justice demonstrater threw a condom filled with powder at him but Blair calmly walked away, an anger management lesson for Prescott some mignt say.