UK: Tony Blair has again refused to endorse Gordon Brown as his successor, insisting Labour should spend this week's party conference talking to the British public about the country's concerns.
But it seemed a forlorn hope last night as a relentless media spotlight proclaimed the confident chancellor's expectation that he will lead Labour's quest for a fourth term in office - on the promise of "a new politics" and a new way of governing, with increased parliamentary accountability and the further devolution of executive power.
On the eve of what he hopes will be his last speech to conference as chancellor, Mr Brown heaped lavish praise on Mr Blair, saying he had been "a great prime minister and leader of the Labour Party" and maintaining "he should be free to make his own decision" as to when to stand down.
Mr Brown again also denied involvement in the attempt to force Mr Blair from office just over two weeks ago, dismissed any suggestion that they were now operating a "dual" premiership, and formally maintained: "Tony's still leader of the Labour Party, there's no leadership contest at this time."
However, the chancellor's protestations were as unconvincing as Mr Blair's insistence that he has a significant role to play in helping develop Labour's future policy during his remaining time in Number 10.
And even as he sought to close down the debate about the succession, the departing prime minister fuelled it by repeatedly declining invitations to say that he would like Mr Brown to succeed.
Speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, Mr Blair said he did not "resile" from anything he had previously said about Mr Brown and was reminded by interviewer Andrew Marr that this had once included the assertion that his chancellor would make "a brilliant prime minister".
However, Mr Blair refused to respond to a headline in yesterday's News of the World declaring he would not back Mr Brown in the contest to succeed him. Pressed for several minutes, Mr Blair insisted he had said all he had to say on the subject, was "not getting into that game" and would answer questions on the issue at the appropriate time.
"Gordon has been a fantastic chancellor, he's been a great servant of the country and the party . . . but this week I am talking to the public," said Mr Blair.
"That's the agreement we made [ last week] in the cabinet and that's what we're going to do." However, Mr Blair's hope that cabinet ministers would observe a "self-denying ordnance" was already undone by work and pensions secretary John Hutton's call for a challenge to Mr Brown with the assertion that "we don't do coronations in the Labour Party". And the strategy again came unstuck as foreign secretary Margaret Beckett yesterday effectively declared for Mr Brown, saying: "I always felt Gordon was both most likely to succeed Tony, and should."
In his interview, Mr Blair also betrayed his continuing hurt at the failed coup attempt, declaring: "For the first time since I became leader, the Labour Party went AWOL [ absent without leave] from the British public, it looked in on itself, it started all the infighting and the rest of it." And he asserted: "The public out there are angry about that. They don't want to see their government do that. They want us to govern."
That argument echoed the private briefings by some Blair loyalists that Mr Brown has been damaged by accusations of disloyalty and restless ambition.