Brown Discusses Blair Rift

Gordon Brown has revealed how he struck a deal with Tony Blair over his eventual succession to the Labour leadership.

The ambitious pair agreed in 1994 that Mr Blair would have a clear run until he stood down and was replaced by Mr Brown.

However, talking to chat show host Piers Morgan, the Prime Minister said the deal was not done in Granita restaurant, as many believe.

During the interview, Mr Brown spoke very openly for the first time about the death of his ten day old baby daughter Jennifer Jane in 2002.

The Scots man entered the office of Prime Minister in June 2007, following Mr Blair's decision to step aside.

Mr Brown dispelled the widely regarded tale that both men settled the arrangement in Granita many years previous.

"I'd already agreed with Tony before that dinner that he would stand for the leadership and I would stay on as the shadow chancellor, as the person in charge of economic policy," he said.

"And there's an understanding that at some point Tony would stand down and he would support me if, when, that was the case. And that's where we left it."

When Opposition leader John Smith passed away in 1994, Mr Brown was Labour's Shadow Chancellor and Mr Blair worked as Shadow Home Secretary.

Many had tipped Mr Brown to secure the party leadership, including the man himself.

"I thought that would be possible and the first person I phoned when I heard John had died was Tony," the Prime Minister said.

"I believed I could do the job, I believed that I'd got the experience and built up the experience to do it."

Eventually Mr Blair took to the helm and won the 1997 General Election.

Mr Brown said his time in government with Mr Blair was not with out friction. He described working together as "incredibly difficult, even if you are friends".

In a programme to be broadcast on Sunday evening on ITV, Mr Brown talked about the death of his infant daughter as she lay in his arms. The child had suffered a brain hemorrhage.

"Nobody actually really told us for a week, it just gradually dawned on us that, that something was going wrong and she wasn't getting bigger, she wasn't growing and, no matter what treatment that was being given to her, she wasn't able to respond to it.

"And I could hold her hand and I could feel that she knew I was there and there was nothing that you could see that was actually wrong, but she just wasn't growing.

"And then probably after a week Sarah and I... she was in the special care. I turned to the doctor and I said: 'She's not going to live, is she?'

"And he said: 'No, I don't think so. She's not going to live'."

Mr Brown has previously declined to discuss the very personal matter in public.

(PR/BMcc)