BRITAIN: Britain's former home secretary Charles Clarke yesterday baffled colleagues by unleashing an all-out assault on the chancellor, accusing Gordon Brown of "absolutely stupid" behaviour during the leadership crisis and warning that he needed to prove his fitness to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister.
Ministers across the party suggested his remarks were fuelled primarily by long-standing disagreements with Mr Brown, and dismissed the idea that he was acting as an agent provocateur for Blairites determined to find an alternative leader.
They described Mr Clarke's intervention as baffling, unhelpful and ill-advised.
Mr Clarke made several pointed criticisms of the chancellor in a speech in London earlier this week. But his remarks yesterday went much further. He said Mr Brown's succession was not inevitable and that he had failed to work with cabinet colleagues, adding that MPs were "worried about Gordon" and needed reassurance.
The former home secretary said MPs had been angered by the pictures of Mr Brown grinning on Wednesday, at the height of the furore surrounding Mr Blair's future.
"A lot of people are very upset and cross about that. It was absolutely stupid: a stupid, stupid thing to do," he said.
"He is talented and brilliant but there are these little incidences like the grin in the car that build up a terrible picture." Mr Clarke told the London Evening Standard: "What he should have done was come out strongly and distance himself from [ backbench rebels]. He could have done that with a click of his fingers. This has been complete madness."
But allies of Mr Brown refused to take the bait and played down suggestions of a Blairite plot. "Charles is naturally provocative, but I don't think his remarks will be welcomed by anybody bar the Tories. I don't think he is easy to put up to things; he's very independent-minded," said one minister supportive of Mr Brown.
A Blairite colleague added: "Charles is just doing his own thing in his own way; he is not part of a concerted effort. He's kicked both Tony and Gordon recently." Mr Clarke attacked the prime minister for a failure of leadership after being sacked as home secretary.
The timing of that criticism - shortly before the local elections in May - did not win him friends; one MP yesterday labelled him "petulant".
Mr Clarke, who was former party leader Neil Kinnock's chief of staff when Mr Brown first arrived in parliament, has had particularly difficult relations with the chancellor.
He urged Mr Blair to run for the leadership in 1994 and told friends afterwards: "I started out believing that Gordon should not run for the leadership, but I have subsequently come round to the view that it would have been better if he had and actually been beaten. That would have humiliated him and meant that Tony did not owe him a debt. There was never the remotest chance that Gordon would be elected leader of the party."
That remark is unlikely to be forgotten by the chancellor's allies. The two men also clashed while in government together, in particular over tuition fees and identity cards. But the former home secretary has always retained his independence from the prime minister and several colleagues thought he might be hoping to return to government under Mr Brown's leadership.
One Blair loyalist said yesterday: "I'm surprised by the strength of what he said . . . I never had a sense it was a feud in the way it was with Gordon and Milburn or Reid." Few took Mr Clarke's remark that Alan Milburn was "leadership material" as a serious endorsement; one minister suggested Mr Clarke was more likely to back Alan Johnson.
Nor did they believe that Mr Clarke was planning a leadership bid himself, despite his refusal to rule it out. "If he was planning to stand, pissing people off would not be the right way to go about it," said a friend.
One minister - not a paid-up Blairite - expressed surprise at Mr Clarke's comments before adding: "They're interesting and mostly right; there are definitely people who wonder about all the moody stuff and whether it's really compatible with being prime minister." - (Guardian service)
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