Shortly before setting off on his Australian and Far Eastern tour, Tony Blair had a long discussion with Gordon Brown about the succession. The Chancellor was extremely clear. ‘Brown wanted a handover date by the end of the year,’ says my source, ‘with Brown coming in around the time of the party conference and Blair going out. It was all to be settled by conference.’
This conversation went into the intricate detail concerning the various constitutional and party mechanisms which need to be brought into play to secure a smooth succession. The role of John Prescott was raised. Brown wants Prescott to stay on as Deputy Prime Minister at least for a short time after the changeover of power, but to step down as deputy party leader. He feels there should be an election for the deputy leadership in parallel with the leadership decision. The Chancellor is insistent that his premiership must mark a complete break with the Blair style of government. In particular he claims that he wants to govern with the grain of the Labour party, in sharp distinction to the Blair method.
Blair was surprisingly conciliatory. My sources tell me that he has now taken the drastic step of giving Brown a precise date for a handover of power. Indeed this was the date the Prime Minister referred to during his pronouncements from Australia. It has been reported all week that the timetable to quit, though now clear in Tony Blair’s mind, remains a matter of obscurity to the Chancellor as well as everyone else. I am assured this is not the case. The Chancellor has been granted the key information, and this is now the cause of an angry rift.
The trouble is that Gordon Brown believes that on two occasions in the past he has been given a date for a harmonious transition and on each occasion Tony Blair has changed his mind at the last moment.
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