Did Blair want Straw to be his replacement as PM?

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”