He was the first to blink

This book illuminates Brown and his circle: they appear paranoid and anyone who challenges them has to be done in. Robert Peston acknowledges some of this, and is occasionally critical of Brown but more often laudatory. It is typical of the Brown camp to co-operate on the book and then dismiss its contents as tittle-tattle.

The purported betrayal of Brown by Blair over the leadership is familiar, but the evidence weak. Much of the ‘proof’ is based on unattributed or second-hand comments. Blair is a master of ambiguity and, as Peston points out, Brown’s wishes could sometimes be father to the thought and his reports of conversations with Blair are the basis for the thesis of betrayal. Something clearly happened last April when Blair was in serious political trouble, but my guess is that no commitment to resign was made then either. Tony Blair likes being Prime Minister: it gives him a better stage than any in the world.

Peston says Brown didn’t run against Blair in 1994 because a deal with the Left would have compromised his premiership. This is not convincing and he exaggerates the strength of Brown’s position. He does not consider another option: Brown’s loss of nerve. The fact is Brown blinked and Blair didn’t: it would probably have been better for everyone if there had been a contest and a clear winner.

Most popular

Freddy Gray

Trump shock: is there method behind the madness?

However, beyond the leadership, Brown was clearly given unprecedented authority over domestic policy, though, contrary to Peston’s view, this hardly justified Brown’s refusal to respond to perfectly reasonable requests from No. 10. The way the Brown-Ball whirlwind took over the Treasury is admired, though I suspect that in the longer term the Treasury’s integrity has been damaged. Nor was Labour quite as well prepared for government as suggested: even the much-trailed windfall tax took a long time to make workable.