London, Nov 28 (ANI): Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrecked Tony Blair's dream of becoming President of Europe by provoking a heated row with Nicolas Sarkozy, reveals a book.
The French President was so angry that he refused to take phone calls from Brown. His attitude from that moment on was said to be '**** the Brits'.
Sarkozy later avenged Brown and by grabbing for France a Brussels post that Brown had desperately wanted to fill with a Briton.
It led to foul-mouthed rants by Brown at Britain's EU foreign envoy, Baroness Ashton, and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. The latter was so enraged he lodged a formal complaint against Brown.
Anthony Seldon has described the extraordinary account of Brown's disastrous attempt to secure for Blair the role of first President of the European Council in his book 'Brown At 10,' reports the Daily Mail.
Brown, who was Prime Minister at the time, backed Blair despite fears that his predecessor could upstage him. But the move was doomed after an acrimonious meeting between Brown and Sarkozy at his official residence, the Elysee Palace, in Paris last year.
Sarkozy agreed to support Blair's candidacy, but in return wanted Brown to agree that the post of EU Commissioner for internal markets and City affairs should go to France, which was refused by Brown.
"When Brown met Sarkozy at the Elysee it went very badly. 'Let's both support Blair, but what I really want is the internal market commissioner ourselves,' Brown opened. Sarkozy was struck dumb. 'I wanted that for France," he said," writes Seldon in his book.
"Sarkozy stopped returning Brown's calls and made it known that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had withdrawn their backing for Blair," says the book.
The full extent of Brown's turmoil at misspelling the name of the grieving mother of a dead soldier has also been disclosed in Seldon's book. (ANI)
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