Westminster blog

No time to read the full Blair memoirs? Never fear, we’ve crunched it into five handy paragraphs for you:

The first MP I ever met was Michael Spicer, who was introduced to me by my father. He and my father were both Tories, and I admired them, but I soon realised they were wrong.

I began to have premonitions, and realised it was my duty – my destiny – to lead the Labour party and the country. I changed the party, I made us electable and I defeated the Tories. For my first act in power, I decided to make the Bank of England independent. Gordon might tell you it was his idea, but he is wrong.

In the early days, Gordon was my friend, my rock, my lover. I wooed him when I ran for leader but we soon began to have tiffs. He did not support me as he should have and he did not really back public sector reform. He was wrong.

I learned about liberal interventionism from watching Schindler’s List, an amazing film, as I told Steven Spielberg. It was from watching this that I realised we had to invade Iraq. I cry myself to sleep thinking about the deaths that war has triggered but I cannot apologise, because I was not wrong.

I am not backing anyone in the leadership election, but I can tell you this: Diane Abbott, Andy Burnham, Ed Balls and Ed Miliband – they are all wrong.