Former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson has played down his reported criticisms of Tony Blair's conduct of the peace process.
Mr Mandelson insisted yesterday that he regarded the British prime minister's record in the North as being among his greatest achievements in office. However, that endorsement came after a newspaper report had him accusing Mr Blair of "unreasonable and irresponsible" behaviour and of "conceding and capitulating" to Sinn Féin demands in a way that alienated unionists.
In a Guardian interview for a series examining Mr Blair's Northern Ireland record, Mr Mandelson first praised Mr Blair for his commitment to the process dating back to his assumption of the Labour leadership in 1994. However, he was then quoted as saying: "In order to keep the process in motion would be sort of dangling carrots and possibilities in front of the republicans which I thought could never be delivered, that it was unreasonable and irresponsible to intimate that you could when you knew that you couldn't."
In a similar vein, yesterday's report quoted former cabinet secretary Lord Butler about the dilemma constantly confronting Mr Blair - namely, how to bring Sinn Féin "in from the cold" without destroying unionist support. "There was a lot to be said for paying a price to keep the bicycle moving," said Lord Butler: "The issue is whether Tony Blair paid too big a price."
Yesterday's account also reflected Mr Mandelson's continuing doubts about why he was forced to quit the Blair cabinet a second time in 2001, and confirmed that he resisted Mr Blair and refused to write a "secret" letter to Sinn Féin offering a form of amnesty for IRA fugitives or on-the-runs (OTRs) in October 1999.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Mandelson played down the significance of the Guardian story, claiming: "This report amplifies something I said out of all proportion to its content and makes a generalised judgment totally unsupported by the remarks I made."
He continued: "What they present as news is very old hat to anyone with a passing familiarity with Northern Ireland's recent history."
The Guardian later released a recording of the interview with Mr Mandelson. A report on the newspaper's website said the paper believed it had reported Mr Mandelson's remarks "accurately and fairly" but that it had released the recording "in order to give readers the opportunity to judge the issue for themselves".
Senior British sources appeared unconvinced by Mr Mandelson's clarification yesterday, while one Irish source thought Mr Mandelson was "burnishing his own reputation at the expense of someone [Mr Blair] who is on his way out."