Bush: Blair wasn't my poodle

Last updated at 09:04 27 June 2007


US president George Bush paid tribute to the "very talented" Tony Blair today and rejected claims the outgoing Prime Minister was his poodle as "silly ridicule".

In an interview published on the day of his loyal ally's departure from Downing Street, Mr Bush joked that he had urged Mr Blair to stay on until his White House term ended.

But he also said the new incumbent of Number 10 Gordon Brown had defied stereotypes and "wasn't the image of the dour Scotsman at all" when he visited Washington.

"He was relaxed. It was a good meeting," he said.

In an interview with The Sun newspaper, Mr Bush said: "Tony's had a great run and history will judge him kindly.

"He's a very talented man for whom I've got a great deal of respect."

Asked about the criticism of Mr Blair for joining the US-led Iraq invasion, he said he had tried at times to "buck him up as a friend".

"I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle. He's bigger than that," he insisted.

"We are working together to achieve global peace in the face of enormous danger.

"This kind of thing is just silly ridicule and that's how I treat it.

"Somehow our relationship has been seen as Bush saying to Blair, 'Jump' and Blair saying, 'How high?'. But that's just not the way it works.

"It's a relationship where we say, 'We're both going to jump together'. We've served together during a time of war and shared the same determination to succeed.

"We analysed the enemy the same way and found each other in the same foxhole."

Mr Bush said he had "selfishly" asked Mr Blair to "stay out my term" but added that the outgoing PM had been "very gracious" about his successor.

And he admitted an envy of the Prime Minister's oratory.

"Tony's great skill, and I wish I had it, is that he's very articulate. I wish I was a better speaker," he said.

But he described Mr Blair's style as "lofty" in contrast to his own "pretty matter of fact" delivery.

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