Jonathan Reed: The Blair verdict: friends and foes find out ex-PM's version of history

TONY Blair reveals how he left staff at a charity in York "bemused" when he was pulled out of a meeting to be told that up to 40 MPs had signed a letter calling for him to quit.

He was at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for a routine trip in

September 2006 when his visit became "interspersed with updates from my own staff about the precariousness of my own job. Eventually, to the bemusement of the people in the meeting, I had to take some real time out to assess the situation," he said. The incident prompted him to announce, shortly afterwards, that he would stand down the following year.

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He also writes of how angry fuel protesters prompted a quick escape from Hull City Hall and meant missing a dinner at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate John Prescott's 30 years as an MP.

"The police advised me to call it off," he says. "I accepted

gratefully. I had to think. We got out of a side door of the City Hall, and after being pursued down the street by a mob, we got into the hotel." The book also reveals he scrapped one of his "wackier innovations" – the government's Annual Report – after the 2000 edition heralded the building of a new sports stadium in Sheffield. "The only problem was it didn't exist," he says.

He praises the "very stoic" York residents that he met while visiting the flood-hit city in 2000, saying this led to a policy rethink and a 1bn investment in flood defences.

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And he reveals he "knew we were really getting somewhere" on school reforms when parents at the new Doncaster Academy complained on a television documentary that their child had been threatened with expulsion if they failed to turn up on time.

JOHN PRESCOTT

Tony Blair says he should have sacked his Deputy Prime Minister

following the April 2006 revelation of his affair with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple – but could not bring himself to do it, partly out of a feeling that he should "do right" by John Prescott's wife, Pauline.

He wrote: "In purely selfish terms it would have been better to fire him, I knew that.

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"It would have given the media their scalp. It would have allowed some change at the top and, even if that had turned into a TB/GB (Tony Blair/Gordon Brown) contest, it would have served to flush people out. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

Mr Blair describes the Hull East MP as "one of the most fascinating characters ever to hold really high office", and tells how he found it "extraordinarily funny" when Mr Prescott threw a punch at a protester who had just hit him with an egg on the campaign trail.

He says he rang Mr Prescott to ask him to apologise, only for his deputy to reply: "I'm bloody well not. So you can forget it."

Mr Blair also reveals Mr Prescott unleashed a four-letter tirade after reports that a respected Liberal Democrat might enter the Cabinet – and was "definitely-fashioned, not great at working with a certain type of middle-class woman".

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On one occasion the Prince of Wales was baffled by Mr Prescott's habit of balancing a teacup and saucer on his stomach, asking Mr Blair: "Does he ever do that thing with you?" The Prince went on: "When he's sitting opposite you, he slides down the seat with his legs apart, his crotch pointing a little menacingly, and balances his teacup and saucer on his tummy.

"It's very odd. I've never seen someone do that before."

Mr Blair eases his concerns that it may be a sign of hostility,

adding: "I think he just likes drinking his tea that way." By way of defence, Lord Prescott said yesterday: "There was nowhere to put the cup and saucer, so I rested it on my stomach." That said, the former PM concludes his deputy – who acted as a mediator between him and Mr Brown, and agitated strongly for Mr Blair to stand down in 2006-07 because of sustained media criticism – was "a one-off. Occasionally my bane. More often my support. But genuine, unvarnished and, in the ultimate analysis, true. And in my profession, you can't say better than that".

ED BALLS

Mr Blair is scathing of the Labour leadership contender – one of Gordon Brown's closest allies – whom he accuses of "behaving badly" during the battles between the pair and being "wrong on policy" over tax and spending.

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When Mr Blair felt "we had reached the limit of our spending" in 2005, he revealed: "Ed Balls was of the opinion that the public wanted even more spending and were prepared for the extra tax, by reference to polls that the Treasury had – which I said was nonsense. On these issues, the public fib."

He added: "Ed Balls was and is immensely capable intellectually, and also has some of the essential prerequisites for leadership: he has guts and he can take decisions. But he suffers from the bane of all Left-leaning intellectuals...these guys never 'get' aspiration." He reveals that he blocked Mr Brown's request for the Morley and Outwood MP to get a government job as soon as he was elected in 2005, describing it as "inappropriate".

Mr Blair makes little comment about Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper, the wife of Mr Balls, and fellow leadership contender Ed Miliband, the Doncaster North MP.

WILLIAM HAGUE

"In different circumstances, he could have been – and very possibly may still be – a great leader and even Prime Minister," says Mr Blair of the Foreign Secretary and MP for Richmond.

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Mr Hague was the man facing Mr Blair across the Despatch Box in the Tories' darkest days after 1997, and the former Prime Minister says he "puzzled" over his rival.

"He was a truly outstanding debater; he had a good mind and a high-grade intell-ect," he says. "There was lots of real quality in him and about him. I thought he had definite leadership character."

But he says that the Tories "messed up" over the fuel protests exactly 10 years ago when Mr Hague "more or less backed the protest", leaving the party vulnerable to changing public mood.

DAVID BLUNKETT

Mr Blair "was really sorry" after the Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough MP was forced to quit the Cabinet in 2005 after his affair and subsequent allegations over the visa application of his ex-partner's nanny.

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"He was a truly decent guy, a great political talent," writes Mr Blair, who had initially stood by the then Home Secretary in the midst of a media storm.

"He picked the wrong woman. Easy to do. Fatal in politics."

The pair enjoyed "an emotional farewell" when he quit, with Mr Blair hailing him revealing how he "adored and deeply admired" the former Sheffield Council leader.

ALAN JOHNSON

"By rights" the Hull West and Hessle MP should have won the Labour deputy leadership contest in 2007, says Mr Blair, but his

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campaign "never quite got lift-off" and he was pipped to the post by Harriet Harman.

It was Mr Johnson whom Mr Blair chose to accompany him on a school

visit when he announced in Sept-ember 2006 that he would step down the following autumn, describing him as "loyal" and a leading Labour colleague"in whose company I found it easier to speak".

DAVID DAVIS

"I liked David and thought him an unusual and principled politician," writes Mr Blair after the former Shadow Home Secretary led Tory

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opposition to his plans to detain terror suspects for 90 days without

charge.

However, he claims the stance adopted by Mr Davis – MP for Haltem-price and Howden – and the Tories was "a crazy mistake", even though it was Mr Blair who ended up being "torn apart" by the media.

GEORGE MUDIE

The Leeds East MP, a close ally of Gordon Brown, gets grudging respect as a "supremely good organiser" as the former PM acknowledges Mr Mudie's part in organising Labour rebels against tuition fees.

It was a rare piece of praise for an MP so close to Mr Brown.

TONY BENN

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The former Chesterfield MP left a young Mr Blair "enraptured,

absolutely captivated and inspired" when hearing him speak for the first time.

"What impressed me was not so much the content – actually I didn't agree with a lot of it – but the power of it, the ability to use words to move people" he says. His son Hilary, who served in Mr Blair's Cabinet, and is a Leeds MP, does not warrant a mention.