BRITAIN: Allies of Gordon Brown insisted yesterday he was not behind the plot to overthrow Tony Blair despite revelations that the chancellor of the exchequer had been visited at his home in Scotland by a minister who was a key player in last week's attempted putsch.
Tom Watson, the Brownite junior defence minister forced to resign after signing a "Go now" letter to Mr Blair, said he went to Mr Brown's Fife home last weekend, shortly before the letter emerged.
Both he and the chancellor said yesterday there was no discussion of any plot to oust the prime minister, or about the letter that Mr Watson signed.
"If they'd wanted to plot they would have used the telephone," said one Brown ally.
Mr Watson has told friends that his family weekend at a golf hotel in nearby St Andrews was to make up for a spoiled summer holiday in Ireland and that the purpose of the brief visit to the Browns was to allow his wife, Siobhán, to deliver a present to baby Fraser Brown.
Apart from a brief chat between their spouses on early-learning policy, the couples "watched Postman Pat on a DVD and played with their [ three] babies", Mr Watson has told friends.
Mr Brown denied plotting to overthrow Mr Blair yesterday and said he would welcome a wide-ranging contest for the Labour leadership, only to find Blairites warning that his conversion to an "inclusive" style of government may have come too late to rescue his lifelong ambitions.
During his weekend tour of the Middle East, Mr Blair responded to the chancellor's categorical denial that he had encouraged "rumours and speculation" by saying: "Of course, I accept the assurances that have been given." But yesterday there was still tension between supporters of both men.
One senior minister accused Blairites of "a concerted attempt to destroy Gordon's character".
Mr Brown used a pre-planned TV interview to present himself as a loyal and admiring ally of Mr Blair's during nine successful years in power.
He went on to endorse many of the prime minister's controversial policies - including Iraq and anti-terror legislation - as well as his right to choose his own departure date, probably in the spring.
The interview was recorded before the revelations about Mr Watson's visit to his home, so Mr Brown was unable to address that point directly, but he told Andrew Marr: "There were rumours of course about all sorts of things happening during the course of that week.
"If anybody had asked me about the contents of that [ anti-Blair] letter I would have said it was completely ill-advised."
In a significant reversal of past wariness he also said rival candidates "should be free to put both their views forward and to stand if that is what they want to do".
Allies say he had been ambivalent about a contest, but now accepts it would do more good than harm.
"If he has moved to reach out and to reinvent himself, then good. But the chances of him winning a general election have been substantially diminished," said one Blairite.
Alan Johnson, tipped as "the new John Major", emerged over the weekend as the bookies' outsider to challenge the chancellor. -