Gould denies attack on Blair

JOJO MOYES

The controversy over Tony Blair's style of leadership took a new twist early this morning as the former Shadow Cabinet minister Bryan Gould denied he was the author of a highly critical article about the leadership.

Mr Gould, now vice-chancellor of Waikato University in New Zealand, said he was considering legal action over the feature in the London Evening Standard on Monday.

"The article is a total fabrication, written by somebody else," said Mr Gould. "It has attracted a lot of comment and has angered a lot of my colleagues. I am going to take legal advice and make a protest to the Press Complaints Commission."

The full-page article, stating Mr Gould was the author, attacked Mr Blair for giving up on socialist ideals, not having an ideology and seeking only to please the public. "There is not a single word that I wrote. I did write an article for them, which I faxed to them at their request," said Mr Gould. "It was a measured article and expresses a measured view about Tony Blair's leadership and the troubles he is facing. It was partly critical, but nowhere like as critical as the article appeared."

There was no comment from the Evening Standard last night.