The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq - The Alastair Campbell Diaries (50 page)

TB and GB met, and it was a collector’s item. GB constantly complaining there was no strategy. Why did we do a crime initiative on the day he had done his NHS speech [
see March 20
]? TB saying ‘I cannot believe you are still going on about it.’ GB blaming TB for the
Telegraph
attacking him and when I pointed out that the
Telegraph
tended to attack TB a lot harder, he was having none of it. After he had left, TB said we just had to keep managing him. It’s a pain, but he is still the best politician in the government, ‘with the possible exception of me’. He said ‘I’ve thought long and hard about whether I could put him out, and I don’t believe I can. I feel a sense of duty to leave the Labour Party in good shape and the two of us as avowed enemies would be too bad to contemplate. I’ve thought about it but it’s just not realistic, because whatever his faults, which are many, he is still the best qualified to take over.’

He said one of his weaknesses was that he forced others to adopt his own failings. He said Nick Brown would probably get hit hard in the FMD [inquiry] report [he had been agriculture minister during the 2001 foot and month crisis] and why? Because he didn’t go to the centre for help when he most needed it because GB, as we knew, was
urging him to ignore all the presidential bullshit, so-called. I felt GB was trying to force him out by wearing him down. There was no doubt in GB’s own mind that TB had reneged on a deal of some sort, but perhaps more significant than that, TB was moving to the view that GB was not temperamentally suited to a bigger job.

Fiona had a meeting with Jan Taylor [Number 10 Correspondence Unit] who had noticed a lot more disaffected mail coming through, the feeling that TB wasn’t trustworthy. It chimed with what Philip was saying. PMQs was OK, and TB managed to get up the Tory cuts plan. IDS not great. I got Godric to say at the four o’clock that TB had to cancel his regional visit tomorrow because he had more CSR meetings. The Treasury went bonkers about it and I told them that was their problem. If they worked to a proper agreed strategy, there wouldn’t be a problem.

TB called me through and we went out for a chat on the terrace. Philip had briefed him on how his trust ratings had really dipped. He said ‘In truth I’ve never really wanted to do more than two full terms. I could fight a third election
in extremis
, but it would have to be
in extremis
, namely that my worries about GB were such that I feel it would be wrong.’ It was pretty clear to me that he had just about settled his view, that he would sometime announce it, say that he was going to stay for the full term, but not go into the election as leader. The big question was the same as before – does it give him an authority of sorts, or does it erode that authority, and do people just move automatically towards GB? He felt it was possible that it would strengthen him because he would be able to move people without anyone saying it was because he feared a rival. I had noticed, and he did it again today, that he had started to think about legacy, and how his premiership would be viewed, another indicator that he was moving psychologically to the exit door. He said ‘I think even if I went now, it would be pretty good. Clinton-plus, certainly Clinton without the baggage.’

He felt in terms of transforming the party, winning, and the big policy changes we had made, there was a lot to point to. ‘But the euro does matter a lot to me. Not because of a place in history but because I think it is the right thing for the country. The only question is whether it would just be seen as a deal with GB, that we do it, I go, he takes over. If I said I was going, sometime in the run-up to the next election, it would actually give me more power over him. I could move him. The question is whether politics would just want to move
on to the next story. Maybe, but it would release me to do all the things I want to do. Really drive the public services agenda, really go for Europe and other foreign policy issues.’

He had mentioned the idea to Peter M, thinking he would be totally hostile, but he wasn’t, because he could see the logic. It seemed to me he was definitely moving towards it. We walked in from the terrace to the Cabinet Room, and I asked him whether he really thought this was the right thing to do, or whether in fact he was being intimidated into doing it, and thinking it was the right thing, by a mix of GB and the press. He said, I don’t think so. ‘You have to know when to go. I also think the history of leaders trying to choose their successors is a very bad one.’ So far as I was aware, only Jonathan, Sally, Cherie and I, and now Peter, were aware he was even thinking about this. As we walked back to his office, I said ‘Christ, how much could I get from the press for this one?’ He smiled, then stopped again and said ‘Is it the right thing or the wrong thing? I want your best brain on it.’

At Cabinet, TB asked GB to speak on the economy pre CSR again and he warned it was going to get tougher and that there would be a need to reshape perceptions and expectations re pensions and house prices in particular. He said that problems in the American economy were going to have a big impact here and we would be ‘severely tested’. TB spoke briefly about pensions and asked for a note. GB, very deliberately as part of the current style vs substance line they were running, said he would be happy to provide a note on this for Cabinet but ‘It’s very important that we focus on next year not next week.’ In other words he was long term, TB was short term.

DB briefed the White Paper on criminal justice reform. Derry showed once more why he is not the most natural of politicians when he followed DB’s presentation by saying ‘I counsel caution about rebalancing the system in favour of the victim. This needs a more balanced approach.’ Everyone knew what he meant, but it was the sort of statement that if made publicly would be a pretty full-scale disaster area. Joan Hammell [Prescott’s special adviser] came to see me, said we really needed to watch JP, that he was very pissed off again, the bilaterals were not really serious. He was talking about not doing the visit with TB next week. GB had shown him the
Mail
, said that we cancelled the regional visit for CSR meetings and he said to Joan ‘I’m just a pawn in their game.’ TB, JP and GB were due to have dinner next week and I told her JP just had to understand how grim GB makes it for him from time to time.

Up at 5 to head off to Nottingham to see Rory running in the English Schools [athletic championships]. He had to stay with the rest of the team so I had hours to kill and worked up a speech for TB to set the tone for the CSR. It worked well as a newspaper story. Over to see Mum and Dad, and he was looking really ill.

Back to the stadium for the finals. Really hot, nice atmosphere, but considering these were meant to be the best young runners in the country, the facilities were dreadful. Tom was doing a ring-round re the CSR briefing I had done and I was topping up with a couple of them to push education. The other situation we were having to deal with was Anji [Hunter] and Adam Boulton [in a relationship]. Anji called me about it last night, and Adam this morning and we agreed it was probably best that they let the
Mail on Sunday
do their worst and just say nothing. Sky wanted Adam to put out a statement and I called Nick Pollard [head of news] and said it was best not to. If they did, everyone would feel they had to run it. It was quite a turn-up for the books. Adam was very apologetic at the fact we were having to advise him on how to deal with it. TB called about the leak of the criminal justice White Paper to the
Mirror
, the
Independent
and
The Times
. Blunkett was livid, and demanding a leak inquiry which TB agreed to.

We were getting into a much better place on the CSR, but why had it been so difficult? Peter M had noticed a shift, called to say ‘For once the Treasury seems to be in the right place.’ He was calling about a story in the
Observer
that he might become ambassador to the US. ‘Please kill this at birth because it has clearly been put there to damage me.’ We still didn’t have agreement on DB’s budget. Tessa called to say that she and other ministers were appalled at the letters being sent to them by the Treasury which were essentially telling them not just how much they were getting, but what to do with it.

Ran in, 31.03 minutes, personal best. TB had spent a lot of the weekend trying to influence GB’s CSR statement to the House, felt it was too much focused on ‘spend, spend, spend’, not enough on reform. But we definitely had it set up in a better place, and GB was working for a good parliamentary and media response and by and large he did
it. He delivered it fine, if a bit monotone, and he was effective in dealing with [Michael] Howard’s not brilliant response. Education was running big out of it, but though there was reform in there, it didn’t come through strongly. The CSR pretty much took care of itself so we had plenty of time to prepare for TB’s meeting with the [Commons select committee chairs] Liaison Committee tomorrow. It would be like PMQs but without the noise and with more than just the Opposition party leader able to follow up forensically. So TB was mainly focusing on fact whereas I wanted a discussion of message and texture. We had the annual Labour Party reception in the garden but TB had to leave to take a call from Bush. Nothing much of substance, Bush saying he understood TB was taking a fair bit of stick for being supportive, and he was grateful.

Press OK for GB. Up to see TB in the flat, another chat about his future. You only get two terms, not sensible to choose a successor, usual stuff. I said what I couldn’t work out was whether he really thought this was the right thing, or whether he had been pushed into it by bullying. He felt not, but though GB could be very difficult, he always tried to put that to one side when he worked out what to do. His big worry was still whether GB was suited for the job. We went through the Liaison Committee briefing, maybe an hour or so on that before he said he now wanted to prepare on his own and we left him. It was getting a big build-up from the media but he was pretty much on top of things by the time we left for the Commons. He was a bit nervy and faltering at first, and the interchange with the MPs wasn’t terribly relaxed, but he picked up when they got on to serious policy, particularly foreign policy. They didn’t really go for him, though there was far too much focus on the centre. It was definitely worth doing, was getting big play and good reviews both for him and for the MPs.

I went as [
News of the World
columnist] Chris Buckland’s guest to the IDS press gallery lunch. I got a good look at IDS. He was much more personable than I thought, also more presentable. He told a couple of OK jokes at the start of his speech, mentioned me four or five times, which was far too often, because it suggested they were the ones obsessed with communication not us, and his main point was to attack the BBC over scrapping political programmes. Also said he would reverse our lobby reforms. It was OK without being brilliant. What I didn’t feel was a big political or intellectual challenge to us.

I got back for a meeting with Tom McKane, David Manning and Jonathan re Iraq and when to do the documents. TB had raised the
temperature another gear by making clear publicly we intended to do something and also saying that Saddam had to be dealt with. We agreed not to go for it yet, because it would look like we were going to go to war if we did, TB having made it clear that it would be the start of another phase. TB was pretty pleased with the way the Liaison Committee went, felt it had been worth doing because it was possible to engage in depth. The main news running out of it was Iraq. Philip called after the recent groups, which were grim. GB’s CSR was just seen as more promises and the real problem was they didn’t really feel there had been proper delivery yet. So the trust problem was real and deep. We really had to watch it now. The general judgement, fair or not, seemed to be not good enough, too many promises, not enough delivery.

Ran in, bang on thirty-one minutes. Union strikes [council and public transport workers] and the criminal justice White Paper were running big. TB was fine at PMQs, but frustrated that they didn’t really go on the CSR. We agreed ‘Schools and hospitals first’ as the slogan for conference. I had a very interesting meeting with Carol Fisher [Central Office of Information] who felt there was a system of apartheid in the Civil Service, that people who came in from outside were tolerated but not welcome, and though she felt she had had some success in making change, her life had been something of a misery there. She clearly couldn’t stand the old-style directors of information. It was quite an interesting take on things.

I read the FMD [inquiry] report which was pretty devastating, basically said every major decision was wrong. Although he [Dr Iain Anderson, chairman] was by and large OK about TB, it was clear he felt we should have done more early, should have called in the army and set up Cobra earlier. It was well written, well argued and all the better for that. It was a considered piece of work and I felt the sustained impact was pretty awful. Jeremy and I reacted pretty much identically. We showed it to TB without comment, and he felt pretty much the same. TB got a good press at the Liaison Committee but of course the apology from the IRA yesterday was a massive story and took over.
⁴⁰

To the Roof Gardens in Kensington for Ross [Kemp] and Rebekah [Wade]’s marriage party. Anji and Adam [Boulton] there together,
which was all a bit weird. GB and Sarah. Mo [Mowlam], Chris Smith [former Cabinet minister], DB came later. I enjoyed talking to Mark Bolland [press secretary to the Prince of Wales] who was incredibly indiscreet, not least in the way he talked about Prince Charles. He was scathing about the Palace establishment, said they hated him and they distrusted Charles’ whole operation because they felt he was a threat to the Queen. He was pressing me re TB and GB, and also re what TB thought of matters royal, but I was rather more circumspect than he was.