Brown and Blair: "Partnership renewed"

Tony Blair has given his strongest hint yet that he will back Gordon Brown as the next Labour leader.

In an interview with the Times on Friday he tried to divert attention away from Iraq by repeating that "Gordon will make an excellent prime minister".

Blair stressed that the campaign has re-invigorated their working relationship, thrusting them together again to deal with a highly personal but "threadbare" Tory assault.

Although the two men have had widely aired disagreements over the the party leadership and the future of public service reform, the prime minister said he and the chancellor had a common cause for a third term in power.

"A week from a general election, I have a natural reluctance to end up with great headlines about who will be the next prime minister when the country has not even decided it wants me to remain prime minister," Blair said.

"But I have said on many occasions that Gordon will make an excellent prime minister. I am not going to say any more.

"But the two of us have worked extremely closely together in this campaign in a fantastic way."

Partnership

Blair did not accept rock singer Bono's description of them as the "Lennon and McCartney" of global politics, but added that it is "a relationship that has achieved a huge amount".

"It has been the foundation of the government. I think that, if I am frank, when we both saw the sheer ghastliness of the Tory campaign it made us realise what is important and what is not important," he said.

"I think you will have noticed that on the launch of the manifesto there was a very strong coming together, not just on the economic agenda, but the public services agenda."

Brown was understood to be angry at being removed from the helm of Labour's re-election campaign last year and early briefings that it would be "unremittingly New Labour", pressing ahead with the extension of market forces in health and education.

But earlier this year the two men appeared to settle their differences, with Blair guaranteeing the chancellor would keep his job in the Treasury and some commentators suggesting that they have agreed a handover of power in the next parliament.

Public sector

Blair said Brown had been as impressed as him with "empirical evidence that suggests that public sector reform is working and that makes the case for reform".

"Gordon is the person who led the way on things like public-private partnerships and the private finance initiative," he noted.

"I do not think New Labour will be undone. We won two successive terms of government. We now have at least a prospect of winning a third term.

"The Labour Party has changed its rules so that ordinary members select the MPs. The whole culture of the party is different. We have strong intakes in 1997, 2001 and this intake as well.

"I think they would regard the notion that we return to old Labour as bizarre. There will be debates about different policies within New Labour. But there will not be a fundamental reversion from New Labour."

Pressure

The prime minister said he felt "better in 2005 than in 2001", when the last election was held.

"It is more difficult for me because of the pressure. But this time I can genuinely go into the health service, a school and local area and see that we have changed things and done things we can be proud of," he argued.

"For me, the third term is all about learning the lessons of New Labour and pushing them through with greater determination and an acceleration of change.

"I want to see public service and welfare reform change pushed forward further and faster."

After claims that Labour had inherited Margaret Thatcher's economic legacy, Blair also sought to clarify the point.

"The best bits of Mrs Thatcher's settlement, with the reinvigoration of the post-war public services and welfare state," was how he described his party in power.

Publication

Following Thursday's u-turn on publishing the attorney general's legal advice on the war in Iraq, which followed widespread leaks to the media, Blair said he hoped the move would not set a precedent.

"I am not casual about constitutional conventions," he claimed.

"I genuinely believe it has to be confidential, otherwise it will be like any lawyer’s advice and they will write it for publication.

"In which case lawyers will not go through arguments on both sides and come to a conclusion."

He categorically denied putting pressure on Lord Goldsmith to change his opinion but ruled out further inquiries on Iraq.

"My experience is that, whatever inquiries there are however many issues you resolve, another one will pop up," the prime minister said.

"It's because in the end, those who are opposed remain opposed and would prefer to think of this as conspiracy or deceit rather than a decision.

"It is easier for people when they don’t have to confront decisions as I have to and, instead, they take refuge in lies, deceit, plots and conspiracies. When you lay to rest one conspiracy theory, another one comes along."