Blair swipes at Brown: I’d have given Cameron a run for his money
By politics.co.uk staff
Tony Blair issued a side swipe at Gordon Brown today, suggesting he would have done better against David Cameron in the 2010 general election.
The former prime minister, whose relationship with his chancellor was probably the worst in modern British political history, told Bloomberg markets magazine he could have taken more seats than his successor.
"Frankly, if I'd had a fourth election, I would have given Cameron a run for his money," he said.
"I'm not saying I would have won, but it would have been tighter than it was."
The Tories won 306 seats to Labour's 258 in 2010, with no party winning overall control of the Commons.
With a few more seats Labour could have entered into coalition with the Liberal Democrats without the need for other minority parties to prop them up, but Nick Clegg was still likely to have gone with the larger party for reasons for democratic legitimacy.
Blair also used the interview to defend his extraordinary accumulation of wealth since leaving power, with his companies accumulating £59 million since 2007.
"It genuinely is about making a difference in the world and not about making money," he said.
"The motivation is not the accumulation of personal wealth. If I’d wanted to do that, I could do it a lot simpler with a lot less time."
