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Britain

September 29, 2003


Public smiles: but behind the scenes Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were not pals and the relationship had an 'edge'. Photo: Richard Pohle


Blair's long argument with 'weird' Clinton
By Philip Webster, Political Editor


TONY BLAIR and Bill Clinton were not the close pals they appeared to be, a new book about Mr Blair’s relations with President Bush and his predecessor reveals today.
Mr Blair and Mr Clinton had several rows, one of them lasting 90 minutes. Mr Blair found the President “weird”, and his team was heavily uncomplimentary about the Clinton contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process.

As for his successor, Mr Blair bombarded Mr Bush with a stream of confidential advice, particularly after the September 11 attacks on America, Peter Riddell, chief political commentator of The Times, discloses in his book Hug Them Close, serialised in T2.

The messages, comparable to those sent by Churchill to Roosevelt during the Second World War, have up to now remained a secret. British officials, anxious to avoid the image of the Prime Minister seeming too close to the President, have said little or nothing about them. The book reveals that Mr Blair wrote them frequently, in a familiar jerky style, highlighting areas for action. Many are thought to have been messages about Mr Blair’s world travels as he tried to keep the international coalition together for action against the Taleban.

Charting the Blair-Clinton relationship, Riddell says that in the early days Mr Blair seemed overawed by the elder man’s pyrotechnics.

The relationship always had an “edge”, according to an adviser who was present at all their meetings and saw it as “master and pupil.” But after Mr Blair became Prime Minister in 1997 he asserted himself and was never entirely at ease with Mr Clinton when they were in office. He did not like playing the junior partner and told a senior civil servant that he found Mr Clinton “weird”.

According to a senior minister, Mr Clinton’s role in Northern Ireland was “hugely exaggerated”. The two men fell out during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.

There were several clashes and what Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador in Washington, tells Riddell was a “very angry” 90-minute phone call between the two. There was a “huge, monumental explosion” from the President about a British briefing and an article in The New York Times that suggested British unhappiness at Mr Clinton’s reluctance to consider ground troops.

Riddell was told by a civil servant that Mr Blair would have liked to be a president, above struggles in Parliament.