BRITAIN: The British prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair, yesterday wrecked the carefully calibrated and confident attempt by Gordon Brown, Tony Blair's most likely successor, to woo the British public when she was reportedly overheard branding the chancellor a liar during his speech to the Labour party conference.
With Mr Blair due to make an emotional farewell speech to the conference in Manchester today claiming "Labour's core vote is the country", his office in Downing Street went into overdrive to deny that his wife had so contemptuously dismissed the chancellor.
Ironically, Mr Brown had been using his speech to effect a public reconciliation with the prime minister, saying he regretted their differences.
The news agency reporter who overheard Mrs Blair's remark stood by her story and, given the known animus between Ms Blair and the Browns, the agency was widely believed, including by cabinet ministers.
Some were in despair last night that the meticulous attempts this week to patch up the relationship between the two architects of New Labour had been so carelessly damaged.
Ms Blair last night denied having called Mr Brown a liar, telling reporters: "Honestly guys, I hate to spoil your story, but I didn't say it."
However, news agency Bloomberg reported Ms Blair as saying "Well, that's a lie" in response to a passage in Mr Brown's speech in which he told the conference: "It has been a privilege for me to work with and for the most successful ever leader and Labour prime minister." The reporter, Carolin Lotter, said she heard the remark as the prime minister's wife was leaving the hall to watch the speech in a private room.
Ms Lotter later gave a detailed account of how she overheard the comment, prompting a massive media stake-out of Ms Blair at the conference hotel.
"She was walking through the exhibition centre where the screens are all showing the chancellor's speech," Ms Lotter said.
"Everybody was watching, everybody could listen to it. She was just walking past one of the screens when I heard her say 'Well, that's a lie'. I had to step out of her way or she would have run me down. She made the comment to no one in particular."
Ms Blair is known to be furious at what she regards as the chancellor's plot to force her husband to declare that he will give up the premiership within 12 months.
One cabinet minister said: "It is tragic. I like both Tony and Gordon, and Cherie is acting out of misplaced loyalty."
The episode puts extra pressure on Mr Blair to heap praise on the chancellor today, but he is still expected to hold back from an endorsement on the basis that other cabinet members say a signal at this stage would kill the already slim chances of any challenger to Mr Brown.
Mr Blair will stick to his plan to tell his party that for Labour to secure a second successful decade, it needs to be more New Labour, not less. He will say the hallmark of the party is "the courage to be fearless in the pursuit of the right answers, listening and learning beyond our party ranks in order to lead.
"The core vote of this party is not the heartlands, the inner city, or any sectional interest or lobby. Our core vote is the country."