You are here: Home » News »

Did Blair want Straw to be his replacement as PM?

September 24, 2012 10:03 am

Tags:

Share this Article

According to Jack Straw’s new book, Blair may well have wanted Straw to challenge Brown:

“On two occasions at least, when I was still Foreign Secretary, Tony had suggested – I put it no higher than this – that I should think about the leadership once he had gone. ‘You could do it, you know, Jack.’”

“But I wasn’t sure I could do it all. I understood the Commons, and had handled the House through some incredibly difficult issues. But the weekly half-hour of Prime Minister’s Questions frightened me off. I was afraid I would screw it up. I guess I could have overcome these fears. I knew how to survive, after all. But there was a bigger question in my mind — did I want it enough, was I willing to pay the price of further pressures on my family and myself?”

Of course in the end Straw ran Brown’s “campaign” for Labour leader. But he still thought about trying to depose him later on, but decided against it:

“What held me back was my anxiety that the most probable result of a leadership challenge would be a dreadful, bloody mess, which would leave the party in an even worse state”

Related posts:

  1. Straw says abolish the European Parliament
  2. Abolishing an elected European Parliament is no way forward – a response to Jack Straw
  3. Jack Straw on his time gossiping on trains with Rebekah Brooks
  4. Hillsborough: Jack Straw blames Thatcher government for creating “culture of impunity” in the police
  5. Thank you Mr Straw
  • AlanGiles

    Thank goodness it never happened. Labour’s credibility would have been completely down the lavatory if Straw had become PM. It is difficult to  believe a word the conniving, pusillanimous Straw ever says.

  • williamtheconker

    “What held me back was my anxiety that the most probable result of a leadership challenge would be a dreadful, bloody mess, which would leave the party in an even worse state”

    So instead we got Cameron and the boy Clegg. That was brave Jack wasn’t it?

  • Chilbaldi

    Interesting. No doubt he would have been a better bet than Brown.

    • AlanGiles

       I honestly don’t think so. Make no mistake, I have no love for Brown – I will never forgive him for Freud -  but Straw is a master of duplicity, and I think he would have been detested both in the Labour party and outside of it if he had ever become PM. The unctuousness and apparently mild manner disguises an extremely unpleasant untrustworthy individual. The fact that a fortnight ago he was blaming Mrs Thatcher (again somebody I have little regard for) for the ghastly affair of the 1989 football tragedy, knowing she is now too ill and old  to issue any sort of explanation, when we know as Home Secretary and Justice Minister he could have instigated a new enquiry, but chose not to, shows how deeply flawed and shifty he is.

      My guess (and it can only be that obviously) is that, had he been PM in 2010 Labour would have lost by a great deal more than they did.

  • Alexwilliamz

    Vanity, vanity all is vanity!

  • Alexwilliamz

    Vanity, vanity all is vanity!

Latest

  • News Seats and Selections Vicky Foxcroft selected as Labour’s PPC for Lewisham Deptford

    Vicky Foxcroft selected as Labour’s PPC for Lewisham Deptford

    Vicky Foxcroft has been selected by Lewisham Deptford CLP as the party’s candidate for 2015 at a selection meeting this afternoon. Here’s a brief biography: Vicky grew up in the North West in a single parent household, and was the first person in her family to go to university. She has held many positions in the party including Chair of Labour Students, has sat on the National Policy Forum and is currently a local councillor and is Chair of Lewisham [...]

    Read more →
  • Comment Labour’s future schools policy: why accountability matters

    Labour’s future schools policy: why accountability matters

    By Mike Ion

    Stephen Twigg, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary is one of the more thoughtful and pragmatic individuals to hold this vitally important brief for some time. To his credit Stephen has been out and about these past two years listening to pupils, teachers, parents and governors and finding out more about the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis. In addition Stephen has been looking closely at some local, regional, national and international programmes that have had a demonstrable impact in raising [...]

    Read more →
  • News Seats and Selections Falkirk selection process suspended by the party

    Falkirk selection process suspended by the party

    The Labour Party have this afternoon suspended the selection process for Falkirk, after concerns were raised about “membership recruitment”. We understand that Ed Miliband was “keen to act swiftly” as the selection process was due to formally begin on Sunday. An officer of the party – yet to be confirmed – will investigate. A Labour spokesperson told us this afternoon: “We have suspended the start of the selection process of the Falkirk parliamentary seat. Concerns have been raised about membership [...]

    Read more →
  • Comment Seats and Selections Unions Working Class MPs – the end of a era?

    Working Class MPs – the end of a era?

    By Paul Wheeler

    It is interesting to see that the Labour Party is returning to the vexed issue of its parliamentary selection process. The changes may be well and good.  But maybe we should be asking a bigger question – are we  witnessing the end of working class representation in Parliament? When the Labour Party was first founded it was more simple. Then the explicit  aim was to secure working class representation, and specifically organised labour, in Parliament. Inevitably it became more complicated [...]

    Read more →
  • Local Government News An absolutely classic Lib Dem bar chart

    An absolutely classic Lib Dem bar chart

    Earlier this week we brought you a decidedly dodgy bar chart from the Tories, but it seems that they’re not the only party in Camden adopting dubious use of bar charts. Step forward Camden Lib Dems, with this classic of the dodgy Lib Dem bar chart genre (courtesy of Theo Blackwell). Even by the pretty shoddy standards of the yellows, this is a corker:   Update: Haringey Lib Dems might want to work on their bar charts  maths too (via [...]

    Read more →