Blair on alcohol: ‘It had become a prop’
By Ian Dunt
Tony Blair relied on alcohol to get him through the day during the later stages of his time as prime minister, he has admitted.
In one of the few genuinely revelatory moments of his newly published memoirs, the former prime minister says he came to increasingly rely on alcohol.
“By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a toper, and I couldn’t do lunchtime drinking except on Christmas day, but if you took the thing everyone lies about – units per week – I was definitely at the other (other or upper?) limit,” he wrote.
“Stiff whisky or G&T before dinner, couple of glasses of wine or even half a bottle with it. So not excessive. I had a limit. But I was aware it had become a prop.”
The memoir, A Journey, was released today. A one hour TV interview – the first since Mr Blair left office – will be shown at 19:00 BST tonight on BBC 2.
