Blair brushes off minister's call for swift exit

Tony Blair was under growing pressure yesterday to speed up his departure from No 10 after a Cabinet colleague urged him to give Gordon Brown time to 'settle in'.

Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, made it clear that the Prime Minister had to give his successor time to prepare for the next election.

She made her appeal 24 hours after Frank Field, Labour's former welfare reform minister, raised fears about how long Mr Blair's health would hold out if he became engaged in renewed feuding with the Chancellor.

But speaking from the Commonwealth summit in Malta, the Prime Minister brushed aside questions about his fitness and made clear he was staying around to push through controversial public service reforms.

He also made a rare foray into internal Conservative politics by indicating that David Cameron's alleged claim to be the 'heir to Blair' did not add up.
'He is certainly not of my political persuasion,' said the Prime Minister, adding that the Tories had yet to modernise themselves in the way Labour had in the 1990s.

Mrs Beckett, interviewed on ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme yesterday, conceded that the time to go was 'in his hands', but said that Mr Blair's departure had to take into account 'when it's the best time for the country and for the future of the Government and for the party'.

Saying that she would vote for Mr Brown to take over, Mrs Beckett added: 'It would be fair to whoever assumes the mantel of prime minister before the next election to give that person a chance to settle in and make their own mark."

After clear signs that No 10 and the Treasury were at loggerheads last week over pension reform, Mr Field suggested at the weekend that Mr Blair might not be up to dealing with another dispute with his Chancellor.

Mr Blair laughed off the idea by telling Sky News: "I have to get in the gym a bit more often, then."

As for reports that he and the Chancellor were clashing over pensions, he appeared weary at talk of his poor relations with Mr Brown: "I have had this stuff with Gordon for 11 years." Mr Blair denied that he was weaker because he had already announced his departure, saying: "Every prime minister goes at some point."

He signalled that he expected to push through his public service reforms, which include controversial plans to give state schools much greater freedom.