Portrait of the Week – 3 July 2004

A fine old row broke out over an unpublished book, Off Whitehall, by Mr Derek Scott, a former economics adviser to Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister. It detailed arguments between Mr Blair and Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. A spokesman for the Chancellor called it ‘deliberate peddling of lies’ and did not exculpate 10 Downing Street. Another book, Blair, by Mr Anthony Seldon, has Mr Brown shouting at Mr Blair, ‘When are you going to move off and give me a date?’ and ‘I want the job now!’ Mr David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, demanded that Humberside Police Authority suspend the chief constable, Mr David Westwood, because a report by Sir Michael Bichard on the murder of the two girls at Soham had blamed Humberside police for ‘systematic and corporate failings’; but Mr Kevin Wells, the father of one of the murdered girls, said that for Mr Westwood’s career to be ended would be a ‘travesty’, and the police authority defied Mr Blunkett, who then went to law.