International

Blair says he's no U.S. `poodle'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON APRIL 26 . The jibe that he has turned Britain into America's "poodle" has finally gotten to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and today he hit back at his critics, calling them a "destructive" influence. Strongly defending his pro-U.S. stance, which has alienated him from many of his party colleagues and caused concern across Europe, he warned that a breakdown of trust between America and Europe could have "explosive consequences".

Mr. Blair said people were "wrong and potentially very destructive of this country's influence" when they called him America's "poodle" and accused him of toeing an American line. "It is a good thing that the British Prime Minister has influence with the American President...Most people around the world envy enormously the position that we have with America...my experience in five years is that where America and Europe work at something together they can crack it; when they come on different sides, these issues become very, very difficult indeed and sometimes potentially explosive," he said.

His remarks, in an interview with The Guardian, came even as a former high-profile Cabinet Minister, Mo Mowlam, launched a fresh attack, accusing Mr. Blair of running the Government like a "law firm" and describing his support for U.S. military action in Iraq as "very, very daft". Ms. Mowlam, who quit public life last year, on Friday said that she believed Mr. Blair was behind the "poisonous" media briefings that made it impossible for her to stay-on in the Government.

Ms. Mowlam, once a key aide to Mr. Blair, warned that his "presidential" style and increasing alienation from trade unions and grassroots Labour activists could "bring the ultimate demise of the party and the Government". A similar warning came from the former Tory chief, William Hague, who said that Mr. Blair's "style" — a concentration of power in Downing Street and a tendency to waffle in an attempt to please disparate groups — could lead to his downfall. "Very often, it is the greatest strength of a political leader and the attributes that brought them to office that prove to be the cause of their downfall years later," he wrote.

However, Mr. Blair called it a case of sour grapes. "The Tory party seems absolutely hopeless; they have been chucked out of the centre ground...they don't stand for anything or believe in anything," he said. To critics of his support for the U.S.'s policy on Iraq, he said that his support had nothing to do with personal loyalty to the U.S. President, George W. Bush, but was borne of his own conviction and a "renewed sense of urgency" in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

He had high praise for Mr. Bush and looked "cross" when the interviewer sounded irreverent about his U.S. ally. Critics, however, insisted that Mr. Blair draw a line, beyond which Britain would not be drawn into an American foreign policy agenda.

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