Prime Minister Tony Blair denied on Wednesday having called his heir-apparent Chancellor Gordon Brown ”psychologically flawed.”
The cautiously worded denial came after a former spokesperson suggested Blair himself may have used the infamous description of Brown, a long-time ally turned political foe of the British leader.
The charge was made in 1998, a year after the Labour Party swept to power, and was widely attributed at the time to the prime minister’s chief spokesperson Alastair Campbell, despite his denials.
However, Lance Price, who was Campbell’s deputy during Labour’s first term in power, suggested that Blair himself made the charge.
Interviewed on political channel 18 Doughty Street TV, Price said: ”I don’t know for a fact it was Alastair Campbell” who issued the comments.
”Somebody very close to the chancellor [Brown] who was having this discussion — many people had this discussion obviously — said to me, ‘By the way, everyone says it was Alastair, it wasn’t Alastair’.
”He said it was Tony Blair. It was Tony Blair who said it.”
But the prime minister appeared to deny it was him at his weekly question-and-answer session with lawmakers in the House of Commons.
Asked to confirm that he had never described Brown as ”psychologically flawed,” Blair replied simply: ”I certainly do confirm that, yes.”
Brown, who is the second most powerful man in the government, was reported to have been deeply wounded by the ”psychologically flawed” charge, which stoked the tensions between the neighbours in Downing Street in London.
Though long-term rivals, Brown is widely expected to succeed Blair, who has promised to resign by September this year, after 10 years in power.
Blair said on Tuesday, at his monthly press conference, that he still expected to be prime minister as late as June.
Price said on Wednesday that Blair’s media minders had done everything possible to protect the identity of the person who first used the ”psychologically flawed” description.
”It was completely unacceptable for the news to be out there that this was what the prime minister said about the chancellor, so therefore Alastair took the rap and Alastair’s been the lightning conductor ever since.
”Now I have no idea whether that’s true, but people very close to the chancellor believe it’s true and maybe even the chancellor himself believes it was true.” — AFP
