Blair refuses to endorse Brown as successor

London, Oct 11: Tony Blair refused to endorse Chancellor Gordon Brown as his successor today, conspicuously side stepping direct questions on the issue in a rowdy session of Parliament.

Brown has been Blair's presumed successor since the two men led the Labour Party into power in 1997.

But that transition was thrown into doubt by a leadership battle last month, when eight people quit junior government posts calling for Blair to resign, and Blair was forced reluctantly to announce that he would go within a year.

Party heavyweights accused Brown of being behind the plot to oust Blair and suggested a Blair ally might challenge him for leadership of the Labour Party and the Prime Minister's chair.

At the prime minister's first question-and-answer session in parliament since that leadership tussle, Conservative leader David Cameron read out comments from last January in which Blair said he was happy Brown would succeed him.

''Do you still think that today?'' Cameron asked.

Blair hesitated before responding, to loud jeering from the Conservatives. Eventually he said: ''I don't resile from anything I've said,'' before changing the subject to health care.

Blair's wording, ''resile'' is a rarely-used term for drawing back, could be interpreted as meaning Blair meant his endorsement of Brown at the time, when Brown faced no serious challenger, without indicating whether he backs Brown now.

Cameron pressed him again: ''Look it was a pretty straight sort of question and you've told us you're a pretty straight sort of guy.

Do you back the Chancellor as your successor? Yes or no? I mean: I do, do you?'' Blair responded: ''I'm sure you are a lot happier talking about that than you are about policy. But I'm going to talk about policy.'' Blair and Brown tried to paper over their feud at a party conference at the end of September, but attempts by the two men to play down their antagonism were hurt when a reporter said she overheard Blair's wife Cherie calling Brown a liar.

Among Blair allies seen as possible challengers to Brown are Home Secretary John Reid and Education Secretary Alan Johnson.

REUTERS