Brown and Blair face-off

Tony Blair today refused to guarantee the Chancellor's job was safe after the next election.

Fielding questions at his monthly press conference, the Prime Minister heaped praise on Gordon Brown - but refused repeatedly to confirm that Mr Brown would stay in the same job.

He ducked the question, which comes after a stream of hints that the Chancellor could be moved or sacked, claiming that he could not assume he would win the election and get a chance to form the Cabinet.

His argument jarred, however, with Downing Street issuing fiveyear plans for all departments based on the clear assumption that Labour will win handsomely.

Mr Blair was speaking at a hastily arranged press conference at No10 which had been timed to coincide exactly with a keynote speech on the tsunami and African aid, delivered in Scotland by Mr Brown.

He denied the coincidence was deliberate, claiming the clash was forced by other engagements.

Some of Mr Brown's supporters were convinced, however, that the staging of an event on exactly the same topics at the same time was a calculated snub.

Mr Blair said of his election chances: "I take absolutely nothing for granted. As for Gordon, you know - because I have said this on

many, many occasions - that he has done a superb job as Chancellor and I am very happy with the job he is doing.

"I'm not getting into the business of what happens after elections and reshuffles and all the rest of it."

Mr Blair said the economy, and therefore Mr Brown himself, would be central to the election campaign.

Apparently seeking to build bridges with the Treasury, he said he and Mr Brown were in complete agreement, not only on the "remarkable work that Gordon did" for the economy, but on the need to deliver long-term aid to Africa and the Third World.

He added: "We can only spend more money on aid because of the economic stability we enjoy."

Mr Blair also insisted that Mr Brown's role in the campaign would be unchanged from the past two elections. That, however, is likely to further infuriate the Chancellor's supporters, who point out that his formal and powerful role planning the campaign and manifesto have been handed to Alan Milburn.

Although the Prime Minister's 70-minute press conference was devoted to the tsunami disaster and the need to extend aid to the " manmade tragedy" of Africa, questions about his relationship with Mr Brown continually arose, to the point where Mr Blair became visibly irritated.

Challenged on why his praise for the Chancellor was in the past tense, he hit back: "He's done a superb job for many years and I have no doubt he will continue to do a superb job."

Asked again if that meant Mr Brown was secure at the Treasury, he snapped: "He is doing it now, for goodness' sake." Mr Brown deftly played down the row over the Prime Minister's press conference clashing with his speech when he told GMTV: "The timing of speeches doesn't matter.

"It's the shared agenda, the common purpose. It's an agreed agenda of the British Government and governments around the world."

But his combative former press secretary Charlie Whelan branded the diary clash "astonishing" because Mr Brown's speech had been planned for months.

Twisting the knife, he claimed: "Perhaps it is because Tony Blair was on holiday at the time of this terrible tragedy and inexplicably decided to stay on holiday.

'I think perhaps realising his major error of judgment he has now decided he needs to get in on the act, be seen to be doing things."