Pressure mounted on deputy prime minister Prescott to quit yesterday, with Labour MPs queueing up to say he should go despite warnings that if Prescott is forced out, prime minister Blair will follow him.
Prescott’s biographer, ‘friend and journalist’ Colin Brown warned those calling for him to quit: ‘The vacancy will only arise when they go together, the prime minister and the deputy.
‘I know that Tony Blair has told the deputy prime minister that they are linked and I don’t think there’s any intention that they will go separately.’
Brown added that Prescott was ‘angry with the way the press has treated him’, was ‘determined to see it through’ and ‘was not going to resign’.
Downing Street continued to maintain that Blair had ‘absolute confidence’ in his deputy who is in charge of the country for the duration of the prime minister’s holiday in Italy.
Blair’s official spokeswoman said he ‘has absolutely full confidence in the deputy prime minister’, but would not comment on his biographer’s claims.
New defence minister Des Browne came forward to try to paint a picture of Prescott as a hard-working cabinet minister, despite him having been relieved of his local government department.
He claimed Prescott was ‘a man who’s made a formidable contribution to the Labour Party’ and ‘does a very important job’.
But the queue of Labour MPs calling Prescott an embarrassment and demanding his resignation continues to grow.
Christine McCafferty quoted Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell’s comment just before his departure, that ‘when you become the story itself, then it’s time to go’, because it’s deflecting from policy and other matters of government.
The latest controversy began with the publication of photos showing Prescott playing croquet at his country retreat Dorneywood, Buckinghamshire, shortly after taking over the reins from Blair.
Norwich Labour MP Dr Ian Gibson said there was only a ‘fifty-fifty’ chance of Prescott still being in post by this time next week.
Gibson said: ‘What matters to the person in the street is what is happening to our local hospital, what John is doing, what is his job.
‘He has all the fringe benefits and so on, but yet it’s not clear what his position is.
‘I think that’s what makes people cynical about politics, and John perhaps in particular.’
Labour MP Stephen Pound said Prescott had a very negative image among voters and his ‘sell-by date is rapidly approaching’.
Fellow Labour MP Derek Wyatt added: ‘I don’t think it’s tenable that he should maintain Dorneywood or the Admiralty flat or the chairmanship of the committees.’