Blair urged Straw to lead party

Jack Straw was twice urged by Tony Blair to stand against Gordon Brown for leadership of the Labour party, the former Foreign Secretary reveals in his memoirs.

"'On two occasions at least, Tony suggested – I put it no higher than this – that I should think about the leadership once he had gone. "You could do it, you know, Jack",' Mr Straw writes in Last Man Standing: Memoirs of a Political Survivor, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail.

He also writes that Mr Blair did not think a ban on foxhunting was important but went ahead with it after being put on the spot on the BBC's Question Time. "I went to see him to ask him why. 'I'm very sorry, Jack' he said. 'I mis-spoke'," Mr Straw recalls.