Brown: Tony did promise me he’d quit in 2nd term
TONY Blair made repeated promises to Gordon Brown that he would quit as prime minister during his second term in office, the former chancellor has confirmed for the first time.
The deal was struck weeks before the two men famously met at the Granita restaurant in Islington, North London, in 1994 – and was simply rubber-stamped at the meal, Mr Brown said.
But Mr Blair reneged on the arrangement, whereby Mr Brown agreed he would not stand against him for the Labour leadership, and went on to fight a third election.
Writing about their 1990s pact for the first time, Mr Brown claimed Mr Blair told him he would give him control over economic and social policy and he would stand down in his second term.
He said Mr Blair told him this was a ‘family choice’, which he had made because he wanted to spend time with his children while they were still in their teens.
The revelation is the latest in a series of disclosures from Mr Brown’s memoirs, My Life, Our Times. Referring to a discussion between the pair on May 17, 1994, two weeks before the Granita meeting, he writes: ‘Tony had reiterated that he had wanted me to stay on as shadow chancellor and would give me control over economic and social policy.
‘This time, he added another promise – that if elected as prime minister, he would stand down in his second term. He said this was a family choice that he had already made.
‘He wanted to be free from day-to- day politics to be with his children in their teens –
‘A family choice he’d already made’
when parents are most needed. It was a promise he repeated on several occasions.’
In his own memoirs, Mr Blair – who remained PM until his third term in 2007, when Mr Brown took over – suggested the deal was a looser arrangement and that it was a mistake. But now Mr Brown has revealed how his brother, Andrew, kept a detailed diary of the events of 1994, including meetings with Mr Blair.
He writes: ‘ When Andrew drove Tony back to the airport after our meeting, he wrote that Tony was “much more tense than earlier”.
‘He was talking to Andrew in the full knowledge that his offers, which he had already made to me personally, would be reinforced through repeating them to Andrew.’
Andrew Brown’s diary entry for May 17, 1994, noted: ‘He [Mr Blair] showed the desperation of his position when he reveals that GB [Gordon Brown] could win if he stood. What he doubted was not that – but whether GB could win the general election.
‘It’s the trump card to play – especially against GB who believes above all else that, after four defeats, nothing should come in the way of Labour winning the election.’
Mr Blair talked at the time about how ‘if he goes for the leadership now, he would want to spend time with his children later before they’re too old – perhaps in five years’ time’, the memoir reveals.
Mr Brown writes: ‘ This accorded with what Tony was telling me directly; that he would stand down in his second term.’