New Times,
New Thinking.

10 November 2009

Brown calls Blair right-wing

A bit of light relief amid Lettergate

By James Macintyre

I’m writing about the behaviour of the Sun for this week’s magazine, so I’ll spare you my thoughts on Gordon Brown’s letter to Jacqui Janes here, except to point to Will Straw’s blog, which remarks that the public is less interested in the matter than the media.

Instead, following comments today from Brown on Tony Blair’s candidacy for the EU presidency, Public Accounts offers you a bit of gossip. At his press conference, Brown called Blair “an excellent candidate, he’s highly respected across Europe”, while accepting that he is “controversial for some people”.

Behind the scenes in Downing Street, following a meeting with European socialist leaders who are opposed to Blair’s candidacy, Brown turned to an adviser and joked that perhaps he should simply come out in favour of a “centre-right” candidate.

Whom did he mean?

“Tony Blair.”

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