The Insider

"I have a natural aversion to Mr Piers Morgan but I have to admit that his diaries are fairly riveting. He has very high level contacts: Princess Diana ’s always ringing him up. He covers the rise of New Labour from about the mid 90s, when he enjoyed a remarkable degree of access to the New Labour court. He writes, ‘Bored one evening, I counted up all the times I’ve met Tony Blair, and the result was astonishing really, or slightly shocking, according to your viewpoint: I had 22 lunches, six dinners, six interviews, 24 further one-to-one chats over tea and biscuits and numerous telephone calls with him.’ Now what on earth is the leader of the Labour Party (subsequently prime minister) doing wasting so much time trying to suck up to the likes of Piers Morgan? The question arose in my mind – if they devoted so much time to trying to humour and stroke the Daily Mirror how much did they waste on The Sun? Yes. I think the Labour Party felt the need at least to neutralise them. I think that’s what they found. I’m not sure that in retrospect it was a good idea. Yes, they wouldn’t have had him on the premises, that’s for sure. I’m sure there are large elements of that in it. There’s an absolute danger in many diaries. Some diaries are self-deprecating – I like to think I was. But I think it’s a slightly egotistical thing to do anyway, because you’re seeing everything through your own eyes, and you tend to think you’re a bigger player than you actually were. I’ve no doubt that Morgan felt he was quite a large player, although the diaries suggest he did really recognise the pointlessness of it all from Blair’s point of view."