Johnson: I’d like Prescott’s job
Alan Johnson has said he would like to be the next deputy prime minister – although he insisted John Prescott should stay for as long as he wants.
The education secretary, a former union leader, is the first cabinet minister to throw his hat into the ring to become Mr Prescott successor as Labour’s deputy leader.
However, constitutional affairs secretary Harriet Harman has hinted she would try for the job, while Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain is another likely contender.
“As far as I know there is no campaign for me as deputy leader. That’s because John Prescott is deputy leader and I want John Prescott to stay as deputy leader for as long as he wants to be deputy leader,” Mr Johnson told GMTV’s Sunday.
“So there’s no campaigning going. But people have asked me if, when there is a vacancy, if I’d be interested in that vacancy and I’ve said quite honestly: yes, I would. But that’s a world away from running any kind of campaign.”
Questioned whether he was interested in fighting Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership, the former Communications Workers’ union general secretary laughed.
“Listen, someone said to me once about this, and I said that the idea of getting me into Number 10 was like the idea of putting the Beagle onto Mars: a nice idea but doomed to failure,” Mr Johnson said.
Although he insisted he wanted Mr Prescott to remain in his job for the time being, the education secretary’s comments, to be broadcast on Sunday, will only add to the pressure on the deputy prime minister.
Yesterday Mr Prescott was forced to give up his official home at Dorneywood after admitting that criticism about his use of the estate, prompted by photos of him playing croquet there during officer hours, was preventing him from getting on with his job.
A number of Labour backbenchers insisted Mr Prescott was no longer entitled to use the house after being stripped of his department responsibilities following his affair with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple.
Despite his claim to the deputy prime minister’s job, Mr Johnson defended Mr Prescott against claims that he was “taking it easy”.
“He works harder than probably anybody I know. I don’t want to get into the personal issues that happened around his family, that’s a personal issue that he’s already spoken of and dealt with, with a great deal of regret,” he said.
