Chirac out to “topple” Blair
Prime Minister Tony Blair believed his French counterpart Jacques Chirac wanted to use the spat over Iraq to contest “the political leadership of Europe,” according to a new biography.
Mr Blair was convinced Chirac was “out to get him,” says author Philip Stephens, a political columnist for The Financial Times.
The author of “From Tony Blair” contends Mr Chirac planned to exploit fraught Anglo-Euro relations – made worse by the UK’s support for the war to oust Saddam Hussein from power – to help “topple” the popular British premier.
Extracts of the biography were published in Monday’s FT.
Stephens wrote: “During the next few months Blair came to believe — partly on the basis of reports from British intelligence — that the dispute over Iraq was in fact a proxy for a much more serious contest.
“Chirac, these reports said, had decided that Blair had usurped his own position as the natural leader of Europe. It was time for the French president to reassert himself and to clip the wings of perfidious Albion.
“Unsurprisingly, French officials dismissed this analysis. But Blair came to believe it, telling close aides that Chirac was ‘out to get him.'”
Mr Blair’s official spokesman said yesterday: “We never comment on intelligence. The Prime Minister enjoys a very good relationship with President Chirac.”
In an interview for the book, Mr Blair told Stephens he believed Saddam Hussein could have been ousted from power without the need for war if the international community had united.
“I still believe actually that if we had come back together and given a proper ultimatum and an international level, we probably could have got Saddam out,” he said.
