Bush is crap, says Prescott

Deputy PM criticises US handling of Middle East, condemning ’cowboy’ President at private meeting

By Colin Brown 17 August 2006

John Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush presidency, summing up George Bush’s administration in a single word: crap.

The Deputy Prime Minister’s condemnation of President Bush and his approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair’s backing of the United States over the bombing of Lebanon.

The remark is said to have been made at a private meeting in Mr Prescott’s Whitehall office on Tuesday with Muslim MPs and other Labour MPs with constituencies representing large Muslim communities. Muslim MPs wanted to press home their objections to British foreign policy and discuss ways of improving relations with the Muslim communities.

Some of the MPs present said yesterday they could not remember Mr Prescott making the remark. He has been at pains to avoid breaking ranks with Mr Blair in public although he is believed to have raised concern about the bombing of Lebanon at a private meeting of the Cabinet. But Harry Cohen, the MP whose constituency includes Walthamstow, scene of some of the police raids in the alleged "terror plot" investigation, said Mr Prescott had definitely used the word "crap" about the Bush administration.

"He was talking in the context of the ’road map’ in the Middle East. He said he only gave support to the war on Iraq because they were promised the road map. But he said the Bush administration had been crap on that. We all laughed and he said to an official, ’Don’t minute that’." Mr Cohen added: "We also had a laugh when he said old Bush is just a cowboy with his Stetson on. But then he said, ’I can hardly talk about that can I?’

Last night, an official from the Deputy Prime Minister’s office said: " These discussions are intended to be private and remain within the four walls. They are private so that there may be frank discussions."

And today Mr Prescott denied that he called George Bush "crap" and "a cowboy". Mr Prescott issued a statement in which he said: " This is an inaccurate report of a private conversation and it is not my view. "

Told that others at the meeting could not recall the words, Mr Cohen said: " He did. I stand by that."

Many Labour MPs have been infuriated by the spectacle of Mr Bush and Mr Blair jointly supporting the Israeli action. The Labour MPs went to see Mr Prescott to lodge their criticism of the Government’s foreign policy and some said last night that they would be delighted if he did break ranks over the Bush administration following the outcry at the bombing of the Lebanon.

In the private discussions with Mr Prescott, the Labour MPs representing large Muslim communities pulled no punches in their criticism of Mr Blair for giving his backing to Mr Bush. Another of those who was contacted about the conversations did not deny Mr Prescott’s words, but laughed and said: " I can’t discuss that." When asked whether he had heard Mr Prescott use the "C-word", he said: "I don’t remember that."

The Deputy Prime Minister is said to have made it clear he strongly backed the efforts by Mr Blair to persuade the Bush administration to revive the road map for Palestine and Israel. Mr Blair has given a commitment that he will give the peace process his priority when he returns from his holiday in the Caribbean.

"There was a very robust exchange of views," said the MP. " We had a row about community relations. The Deputy Prime Minister was told in no uncertain terms that the Government was relying too much on the elders in the Muslim community who didn’t have the credibility that was needed."

Muslim Labour MPs also told Mr Prescott that they needed to retain their own credibility in their communities, which was one of the reasons why they had signed a controversial letter calling for a change in British foreign policy. They said it was not helpful for the Government to have attacked their letter.

Mr Prescott has been accused in the past of making his feelings known about the Republican administration in the White House. He became friendly with Al Gore, the unsuccessful Democrat presidential candidate in 2000, during the negotiations on the Kyoto treaty and allegedly told Mr Gore after his defeat that he was sorry he lost the race to Mr Bush.

Mr Prescott is also known to have used the word "crap" in relation to political events before. Earlier this month, he angrily rejected claims that he could resign over the row about his links to the bid by the tycoon Philip Anschutz for a super-casino at the Millennium Dome as "a load of crap".

Mr Prescott was left in charge by Mr Blair when the Prime Minister went on his delayed holiday but has largely taken a back seat while John Reid, the Home Secretary, has led for the Government on security and the alleged terror plot to blow up planes across the Atlantic.

Behind the scenes, Mr Prescott had to contend with growing backbench demands for Parliament to be recalled to debate the crisis in the Middle East. It remains an option, in spite of the ceasefire in the Lebanon. Campaigners claimed they had the signatures of more than 150 MPs from all parties for a recall. Significantly, they included Ann Keen, the parliamentary private secretary to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who is on paternity leave following the birth of his second child. Jim Sheridan, the Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, resigned as the parliamentary private secretary to the defence ministers over the bombing of Lebanon.

Mr Prescott has been keen to show Labour MPs that he is prepared to listen to their grievances but has insisted on party discipline to avoid splits. He will be furious at his alleged remarks being repeated, but the signs of dissent within the Cabinet are becoming greater.

Mr Prescott issued a statement in which he said: "This is an inaccurate report of a private conversation and it is not my view."

Straight-talker’s way with words

* Posing with a crab in a jar at the Millennium Dome, while Peter Mandelson was standing for election to Labour’s ruling national executive committee, he said to cameramen: "You know what his name is? He’s called Peter. Do you think you will get on the executive, Peter?"

* When asked why a car was transporting him and his wife 200 yards to the Labour Party Conference in 1999:

"Because of the security reasons for one thing and second, my wife doesn’t like to have her hair blown about. Have you got another silly question?"

* On the Millennium Dome: "If we can’t make this work, we’re not much of a government."

* "The green belt is a Labour achievement, and we mean to build on it." (Radio interview, January 1998)

* On the Tories at the 1996 Labour conference: "They are up to their necks in sleaze. The best slogan for their conference next week is " Life’s better under the Tories" - sounds like one of Steven Norris’s chat-up lines."

* When asked by a journalist about Peter Law’s decision to quit the Labour Party after 35 years: "Why are you asking me about this? I don’t care, it’s a Welsh situation, I’m a national politician."

An outburst that shows Labour’s true feelings towards America

John Prescott’s use of the C-word about the Bush administration will remind Tony Blair that before he headed for the beach, he faced a cabinet revolt over his support for George Bush on the Middle East.

The uneasy ceasefire in the Lebanon bought him a breathing space, but he will return to a party still seething with anger at the way he has allowed Britain to be seen as “Bush’s poodle”.

Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, led the doubters in the Cabinet but his concerns were echoed by loyalists such as David Miliband and later by Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary.

Minister after minister is said to have urged Mr Blair to break with the Bush administration at his summit with President Bush in the White House and publicly criticise the scale of the Israeli bombing. Mr Blair is reported to have told allies that he did not need convincing about the concern among the Muslim communities in Britain but he felt it imperative to use his close relationship with the President to push for the revival of the Middle East road map.

The Prime Minister has been frustrated by the lack of progress on the road map by the Bush administration and Mr Prescott’s alleged remarks that the “Bush administration has been crap” on the issue are widely shared in Labour ranks at Westminster. Mr Blair believes he gains from his relationship with the Republican Bush administration. Some American commentators, such as Irwin Stelzer, agree, saying Mr Blair is not Bush’s poodle, but his “guide dog”. It was Mr Blair who persuaded the White House to go to the UN for the ill-fated second resolution before the Iraq war. The Prime Minister made it clear before his holiday that he wants to make a personal stake in reviving the Middle East peace talks as a priority when he returns from the Caribbean.

The problem is that he has already been revealed as a supplicant to the President. The microphone that was switched on at the G8 summit in St Petersburg - when the President shouted “Yo Blair” in greeting to his ally - also revealed that Mr Blair asked the President for permission to go to the Middle East himself, and was refused. Mr Bush firmly said that Condoleezza Rice, his Secretary of State, could do the job.

The more worrying factor for the Cabinet, which ministers now privately discuss, is that Mr Blair is convinced that the Bush White House is right about the “axis of evil”. The Prime Minister called it the “arc of extremism”, but the analysis is the same. Mr Blair said you only had to “join up the dots” around the world. Cabinet colleagues are becoming uneasy that unless Mr Blair delivers on the Middle East by securing an historic peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the UK could be asked to support the Americans in confronting the suppliers of Hizbollah’s arms - Iran.

Before he was moved, Mr Straw said Britain’s support for military action against Iran was “inconceivable”, which was a public attempt to tie Mr Blair’s hands. Mr Stelzer said Ms Rice had noted that Mr Straw’s Blackburn constituency had a large Muslim population, confirming doubts in the White House about his suitability as Foreign Secretary. However, Mr Straw’s allies believe his downfall was his attempt to dictate foreign policy to Mr Blair.

Mr Prescott has been a loyal and trusted ally to the Prime Minister and will continue to be so until the transition of power to Gordon Brown takes place, probably next year.

Few give him credit for knowledge of foreign affairs, but Mr Prescott has played a part in world affairs as Mr Blair’s deputy. His political idol was not the left winger Nye Bevan, but Ernest Bevin, the outstanding Foreign Secretary and deputy to Clement Attlee. His remark will be seen as a rare flash of honesty in a world of duplicity in the Middle East.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=702809