Blair’s pal needs a history lesson

AS TONY Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell was a key figure in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Powell has now branded a proposed pact between the Tories and the Democratic Unionist Party as ‘sordid’. ‘No British government has ever thought of depending on the DUP,’ he claimed.

He has a short memory. Gordon Brown tried and failed to secure the support of the DUP after the inconclusive 2010 election. Meanwhile, in 1997, John Major’s administration had a majority of one but survived courtesy of the Ulster Unionists and Labour PM Jim Callaghan struck a deal with Unionists in 1979 when his government was on its deathbed.