Resigning United Kingdom minister Clare Short this week escalated her dispute with Tony Blair’s style of leadership far beyond the Iraq war controversy when she urged the prime minister to start preparing ‘an elegant succession’ for Gordon Brown — or risk spoiling his own historic achievements.
In an interview with The Guardian that was more explicit than her savage Commons resignation statement, the former international development secretary warned that ”maybe I can help more on the backbenches” in saving the Labour government from errors, caused by the unelected Blair coterie’s ”control-freak style” and their policy ”diktats in favour of increasingly bad policy initiatives” that ”come down from on high”.
In her interview she went on: ”We need to keep this Labour government, it has a good chance of another term. But we must keep it well led and true to its values — and it’s making mistakes at the moment.
”The job is, without falling out into horrendous splits, to try and ensure we keep up the quality of the government and, indeed, organise an elegant succession,” Short said.
She spoke two hours after telling Blair — in a ”perfectly cordial” five-minute phone call — that she was leaving over the United States-United Kingdom mishandling of post-war Iraq. Blair has broken his promises to her, she claimed.
Noting that many constitutions wisely limit leaders to ”two terms” —eight years in the US — Short told The Guardian: ”I think Tony Blair has enormous achievements under his belt and it would be very sad if he hung on and spoiled his reputation.”
In an aside that will anger No 10 but strike a chord with many MPs —including admirers of Margaret Thatcher — Short added: ”There used to be a saying of the Tory whips when they were in power — this is the Tory whips, not me — ‘No one ever comes out of No 10 completely sane.”’
During her interview with The Guardian and the Financial Times Short did not mention by name her ally, Chancellor Gordon Brown, in urging a change of leader within two years. Brown has been generous in supporting her fight against global poverty .
But her complaints about foundation hospitals and top-up education fees — both of which he has opposed — were a clear indication of her preference, as was her endorsement of the chancellor’s ”five tests” stance on the euro. Commons gossip reinforced the suspicion that she wanted to ”take Blair with her”.
The trigger that prompted Short to quit two months after she wobbled back into office after attacking Blair’s ”reckless” conduct was the draft resolution that Britain and the US are now promoting at the United Nations.
Negotiated in secrecy, it does not give the UN the ”vital role” that London and Washington promised. Blair had failed to stand up to President George W Bush — and was not so much a poodle (”poodles get off their lead and jump about”) as a fig leaf. ”Fig leaves just stay where they are,” she said in the interview.
It also leaves the occupation of Iraq as illegal, she said.
”In particular the UN mandate [is] necessary to bring into being a legitimate Iraqi government. This, I believe, is damaging to Iraq’s prospects, will continue to undermine the authority of the UN and directly affects my work and responsibilities,” she said in her Commons statement.
MPs on both sides were deeply divided by her statement. For some Labour leftwingers Short has been damaged goods since she failed to join Robin Cook in resigning from the Cabinet. This week some forgave her, though she was not applauded as Cook was.
Loyalists, including her old friend George Foulkes, accused her of overstating her case and deplored the personal nature of her attack on Blair, who had tolerated her idiosyncratic attacks since 1997.
In her Commons statement Short (57), who will stay on as MP for Birmingham Ladywood — she was born there — warned the wider Labour movement that ”we are entering rockier times and we must work together to prevent our government departing from the best values of the party”.
She was blunt to the point of brutality with Blair. ”To the prime
minister, I would say that he has achieved great things since 1997 but, paradoxically, he is in danger of destroying his legacy as he becomes increasingly obsessed by his place in history.”
As Labour MPs listened in silence the Tories jeered her taunt that their Commons votes helped make war inevitable after the UN route collapsed. But they gasped and even whistled at her critique of the Blair leadership style.
”Devastating,” cried one. With Labour MPs rebelling over Iraq, the National Health Service and the firefighters dispute, the Tories think they are finally beginning to see the end of Labour’s unchallenged hegemony over British politics.
By the time Short made her 11-minute statement, the Downing Street machine had both praised her achievements as a minister, and promoted Lady Valerie Amos from the Foreign Office to become the first black woman Cabinet minister.
That move — so fast as to suggest it was already planned — was widely applauded by peers, MPs and aid agencies, most of whom admired the ex-minister, even if they did not always love her. Short herself said that she doubts that Amos will become a ”stooge” as the Foreign Office tries to recapture her budget.
Straw, the Foreign Secretary, took pre-emptive action against Short’s accusations, claiming that the UN draft was indeed discussed in Cabinet last Thursday, the day Short stayed away — raising expectations that she would soon leave the government.
On Tuesday she beat Blair to the draw.
”I am sad and sorry that it has ended like this,” her resignation letter concluded. In his reply Blair, who was not present for her Commons statement, protested that the UN draft was still being negotiated and was scarcely a secret.
”I am afraid I do not understand your point about the UN,” he said.
The Labour leader now has just eight of the 21 Cabinet colleagues he set out with in 1997 still around the coffin-shaped table at No 10. — Â