Blair's Desire for a "European" Legacy Is More Important to Him than the Impact His Actions Will Have on Britain

Senior Whitehall officials claim that Tony Blair intends to use his final weeks in office to surrender British powers to Brussels as part of his drive for a European "legacy" despite the future repercussions. Prime Minister Blair will effectively be binding the hands of Gordon Brown by committing Britain to a rewritten version of the European Union constitution days before he finally resigns at the end of June.

Mr Blair's has wanted to do forge closer links with France and Germany since coming to power in 1997. This action by Blair will dash Labour's hopes of a "stable and orderly transition" of power when Mr Blair announces his departure plans later this week. Brown will have a series of difficult and time consuming negotiations to undertake to undo any or all of Mr Blair's moves to sign away powers. These negotiations would likely dominate Brown's tenure at number 10.

Yesterday a senior civil servant said, "The concern is that the outgoing Prime Minister will take constitutional decisions which will bind both his successor and the country for years. There is a worry he believes this should be part of his political legacy and that he will be acting as an individual and not the leader of a government." This seems to be a very accurate statement.

Blair is consumed by ensuring his legacy and will do so, it seems, even at the expense of the country he was entrusted to run.