Ministers want Blair to apologise for 'failures'

As Mr Blair prepares to mark his 10 years in office with a local election drubbing this week, senior allies of the Prime Minister believe he can "clear the decks" for Gordon Brown with a frank admission of his mistakes.

Ministers believe that a mea culpa will also tally with the public's perception of the Blair years and ultimately help the premier protect his place in history. A new YouGov/ Telegraph poll today confirmed the collapse in Mr Blair's popularity over the past decade, with two-thirds of voters believing he plays "fast and loose with the truth".

The proportion of voters who think he can be trusted has plunged from 63 per cent to 22 per cent since 1997.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell will today become the latest Blairite to plead for the Chancellor to be given a clear run at the Labour leadership if Mr Blair announces his resignation as expected next week.

Ms Jowell's speech follows the clearest signal yet from Home Secretary John Reid that he will not challenge Mr Brown.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, today revealed that Mr Blair was bound to have "big regrets" that Labour hadn't realised quickly enough in 1997 that serious reform was needed to schools and hospitals.

The peer said that it took until 2000 for the Prime Minister to fully realise that "something more profound" was needed than simply pumping more cash into services.

The first three years of Labour's rule were "like pushing water up hills", Lord Falconer said.

Mr Blair told MPs last week that the party has "durable" achievements that it can be proud of over the past 10 years.

But the Evening Standard has also learned that allies of Mr Blair are to urge him to use his resignation statement not only to celebrate his suc- cesses but also to give a realistic assessment of his time in office.

Defence Secretary Des Browne's recent apology over the Iran hostages fiasco was seen by colleagues as a classic example of how a frank "sorry" could boost a politician's reputation. "The age of the political apology is back," one ally said.

A Blairite minister added: "A mea culpa would help draw a line under Tony's reign and let people focus on the real achievements. Talking about the unfinished business of reform would also help prepare the ground for Gordon." Commons leader Jack Straw today said that Mr Brown would use the period after Mr Blair's resignation statement to unveil his own "distinctive" vision for Labour.

The Prime Minister considered saying "sorry" for the divisions caused by the Iraq war in his party conference speech in 2004.

He offered a qualified apology for the infamous dossier that claimed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

Labour heads into this Thursday's local elections with predictions that it will lose 500 council seats. Polls put the Scottish National Party close to becoming the largest party north of the border, while a new poll yesterday suggested Labour could lose control of the Welsh Assembly.