Alastair Campbell publishes extract from his uncut diaries

Today’s Guardian provides an extract from Alastair Campbell’s uncut diaries, said to be “frank, open [and] revealing”. The extract is set against the backdrop of former Labour leader John Smith’s death, and the leadership struggle that consequently emerged between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Campbell writes:

I bumped into TB […] as he was leaving the Commons to go home. “This is all very difficult,” he said. “What do you mean?” “Relationships.” He and GB had had a couple of conversations he said, and it was clear both were coming under pressure to stand, but both agreed it would not be good to stand against each other. He said to call him at home later. I did, and he said he was being inundated with calls and messages saying he had to stand … He didn’t know what GB was up to, but he did feel they had to come to [an] agreement about which one of them should do it. I said for what it’s worth, virtually every single person I have spoken to, apart from committed GB people, are saying you have to go for it. I said the Tories are hoping we go for GB.

The extract reveals the mood of members of Labour’s inner circle at this time:

I called JP [John Prescott] who said he had called Peter to say there was no point carrying on with all the old enmities. He [Prescott] said there was “no way” Gordon was going to stay as shadow chancellor … he said if Gordon became leader it would be back to all the old stuff, who’s in, who’s out, aides whispering and doing people in, whereas TB is able to work with everyone.

It continues:

TB and I had a long chat about GB. He’s brilliant but flawed, he said, again. “He is like Peter in that he sees things very clearly for other people, but is less clear about himself. I can remember the moment when in the back of my mind I felt he would not be leader. It was after the general election when Neil had stepped down, and GB would not even contemplate challenging John Smith. I felt he could have won, that the party might have wanted to jump a generation. But he would not run, no way, and he didn’t want me to run for the deputy leadership. And something in me began to wonder if he really had it in him; whether maybe it was something he preferred to want, rather than to be.”

Read the full extract here.