UK Politics
Tricky Tony's frosty Nixon moment
Published 05 March 2007
It's 2010 and some documents have come to light that suggest Tony's own Watergate. Luckily, interviewer extraordinaire David Frost is there to put the pressure on.
Scene 1: The year is 2010. A hacienda in San Clemente, California. Tony Blair is giving a series of interviews to Sir David Frost. This is the final day.
Frost: Looking back over your last year in office, Mr Blair, do you feel you ever obstructed justice or were part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice?
Blair: Look, we've been over this, and, you know, I really don't care if you believe me or not, but I happen to be telling the truth. I cooperated with the police. Far from obstructing justice - I was facilitating it.
Frost: But according to Sir Kenneth MacDonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, you were desperately trying to contain or block the investigation. In fact, he made a tape of your conversation on 2 March 2007.
Blair: That's . . . now hang on . . . that tape is inconclusive.
Frost: Yes, because 18 and a half minutes of that conversation have mysteriously been erased.
Blair: That's as may be, but Sir Kenneth - or Lord MacDonald, as he is now - is a conscientious note-taker and his notes are there for all to see.
Frost: Well, we found something rather better than his notes. [Produces documents from his briefcase.] This is a transcript of a conversation you had with Lord Goldsmith on 1 March 2007.
Blair [startled]: Well, I haven't seen that. You can't expect me to comment on something -
Frost: But these are your words, Mr Blair. Quote: "This whole investig ation rests unless someone in my office decides to talk." Quote: "How much will it cost to buy Levy's silence?" Quote: "What about one of Cherie's flats in Bristol?" It seems to me that someone running a cover-up couldn't have expressed it more clearly.
Blair [starting to sweat]: That's out of context.
Frost: Let me put it another way. If Lord Levy really was acting on his own initiative, why didn't you call the police and have him arrested? Blair: I've always maintained that what he was doing - what we were all doing - was not illegal. When you're in office, you have to do a lot of things that are not, in the strictest sense of the word, legal. But you do them because they're in the greater interests of the nation.
Frost: Wait a minute. Did I hear you right? Are you saying that the prime minister can decide whether it's in the best interest of the nation to do something illegal?
Blair: I'm saying that when the prime minister does it, that means it's not illegal.
Frost [leaning forward]: So, in that case . . . will you accept, then . . . to clear the air once and for all . . . that you did break the law?
A shadow passes over Blair's face. The haunted look that dogged him during his final 12 months in office has returned. Enter John Birt, Blair's chief-of-staff.
Birt: Okay, let's take a break.
Scene 2: Twenty minutes later.
Frost: We were talking about your final months in office, Mr Blair. About the mistakes you'd made, and so on. I'm wondering . . . would you go further than "mistakes"? The word seems not enough for people to understand.
Blair: Well, how would you express it?
Frost [casting his clipboard aside]: I think there are three things that the British people want to hear. One is, there was probably more than mistakes . . . there was wrongdoing - it may have been a crime, too. Secondly, I did abuse the power I had as prime minister. And, thirdly, by clinging on to office, I put the people through a year of agony and I apologise for that.
Blair: You have to remember, it was a very difficult time. There was the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, I was facing a partisan media . . . [He tails off, but catches himself] But yes, I have to admit, there were times I did not fully live up to the . . . I was involved in a "cover up", as you put it. And for all those mistakes, I have a very deep regret. I still insist they were mistakes of the head, not mistakes of the heart. But I don't blame anyone else. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in. And they twisted it with relish.
Frost: And the British people?
Blair: I let them down. I let down my friends. I let down the country. Worst of all, I let down our system of government and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but now think it's too corrupt. When I came into office, I wanted to prove the cynics wrong, but I ended up proving them right - and I'll have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life.
Frost: Thank you, President Nix - I mean, Mr Blair.
With apologies to Peter Morgan, author of "Frost/Nixon"
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