Michael Foot criticises Blair for his 'foolish' leadership

Michael Foot, the former Labour leader, has warned that Tony Blair's presidential style is "foolish" and attacked the Prime Minister's ally Peter Mandelson.

Mr Foot, who is 89 tomorrow, said in an interview with The Independent that Mr Blair should give his Cabinet more influence, saying that ministers "must have the chance" to fight their corner.

He said the council workers who have called a second one-day strike over pay "have a good case", and predicted that the Government would end up having an incomes policy forced upon it. He described the Government's failure to abolish university tuition fees as "dreadful".

Mr Foot rounded on Mr Mandelson for his "quite odious" speech after retaining his Hartlepool seat at last year's general election, in which he declared that he was not a quitter.

Although as Labour leader he hailed Mr Blair as a rising star when he fought the 1982 Beaconsfield by-election, Mr Foot said he had voted for John Prescott rather than Mr Blair in the party's 1994 leadership election. He said it was a "damn shame" that, unlike previous Labour leaders, Mr Blair does not attend the annual Durham miners' gala even though his Sedgefield constituency is near by. Organisers said the Prime Minister did not reply to an invitation to this year's event.

Mr Foot, a long-standing critic of the European Union, appears to have changed his mind on the single currency. He said Mr Blair should call a referendum on Britain joining the euro "when we can win it".

However, he has not changed his passionate support for nuclear disarmament and says Mr Blair should have done more to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

"Geoff Hoon [the Secretary of State for Defence] talks as if he might want to use these nuclear weapons. It is the biggest issue in the world," he said.

Mr Foot led Labour to its worst defeat in half a century at the 1983 general election after being famously given a "vote of confidence" by his party during the campaign. He admitted that election day was the "blackest day in my political life".