‘Political rivalries coaxed Number 10 online’

DAMIAN GREEN urged John Major’s Government to embrace the internet in 1994 to catch up with the White House and stay ahead of the young Labour leader Tony Blair, newly released official documents show.

Former First Secretary of State Mr Green, then in the Government’s policy unit, wrote that “Internet users will be a growing group of opinion-formers” as he suggested getting online to keep up to date.

In a letter to Mr Major’s Private Secretary, Alex Allan, on August 22, 1994, he said: “Various MPs who are computer-literate have made the point to me that it would be advantageous for Number 10 to be seen to be up with developments in this area.

“Specifically, connecting No 10 with the internet would keep us up with the White House, which has made a big thing of the modern way the Clinton/Gore administration deals with communications.”

He added: “I can just imagine Tony Blair showing how he belongs to a new generation by signing up.”

Mr Blair, who had been elected Labour leader a month earlier, was, however, notoriously known as a technophobe.

Mr Allan responded to Mr Green’s letter by agreeing that getting online would show “that Number 10 is keeping up with technological trends”.

He was concerned, however, about advertising for the public to send emails to the PM, which the White House was doing at the time.

Mr Allan said: “I am sure we should offer this in time, but I am cautious about rushing into it.

“I do not believe we would get a huge volume of email in the long run, but we could expect an initial flood as people around the world tried it out for fun.”

Progress in communications appears to have been sluggish in the administration, with the files also showing that by late 1992 Number 10 did not even have a direct fax machine line.