Cameron’s meeting with Blair was a deplorable stitch-up

In 15 years of covering domestic politics I have never reported on anything half as sordid as Tuesday’s meeting between Tony Blair and David Cameron in the Prime Minister’s L-shaped Commons office. Afterwards David Cameron took it upon himself to issue the standard Blairite defence of the recent scandals: ‘We have a relatively uncorrupt party system but we do have a party funding system that is in a mess.’ Charlie Falconer, the Prime Minister’s chief apologist during the funding scandal, couldn’t have put it better.

A spokesman for the Tory party indicated that the occasion was forward-looking, asserting that it was held to discuss looming reforms of party funding. But this claim made no sense. If true, there would have been no need for privacy. Quite the reverse. Cameron would have made his case in public, rather than scuttling into Blair’s office. Nor would it have been a matter for Blair and Cameron alone. The Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell and leaders of the smaller parties have equally legitimate voices on the subject.

This wasn’t an attempt to make British politics cleaner. It was another stitch-up. Cameron and Blair weren’t looking forward. They were looking back, working out how best to deal with the mess. Both party leaders — Tony Blair in particular — are very frightened men. Blair is under investigation for the sale of peerages. He knows that his premiership may well end in disgrace. Blair’s protégé Cameron is trying to protect him. David Cameron’s entire strategy is to present himself as the ‘heir to Blair’. If Blair goes down, Cameron goes down with him, and Gordon Brown wins. It was exactly as though two safebreakers who normally find themselves in comparatively fierce competition had come together to discuss how best to evade the long arm of the law.