TONY BLAIR is to risk the chancellor’s wrath by unveiling a series of public service reforms before he leaves office.

The prime minister will today declare that he still has “crucial decisions” to make about Britain’s future before he departs. In a BBC television interview, he will make it clear that he will not stop policy-making until he moves out of Downing Street.

A packed programme of announcements on health, education and crime is being drawn up by No 10 for Blair’s final days in an attempt to cement his legacy.

The plans have caused tension with the Treasury, with some supporters of Gordon Brown resentful at Blair’s attempts to tie his probable successor into long-term reforms they do not back.

The plans include spending £2.5 billion to expand the network of private treatment centres contracted to operate on NHS patients; more city academies; and the roll-out of the new system of trust schools that are funded by councils but set their own admissions policies.

An aide to the prime minister said: “The PM is going to be working flat out. He won’t be letting up until his final day in office.”

Tensions with Brown’s supporters are being further inflamed by the prime minister’s failure to announce a date for his departure.

Insiders say he is still mulling over whether to make the statement immediately after the local elections on May 4, or to wait until the middle of the following week — a move that would give opponents of the chancellor valuable extra time to assemble a cabinet-level leadership challenge.

Suspicions that Blair wants to see a contest are being encouraged by his continuing refusal to endorse Brown, despite periodic pleas to do so.

Insiders say he will not commit himself until he knows whether there is to be another cabinet-level candidate, such as David Miliband, the environment secretary.

Later this month Miliband will follow in the footsteps of the Blairs and Brown by meeting Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. He has been invited to give a keynote address at the Vatican’s first summit on climate change, giving him his highest international profile yet.

Brown is returning to Britain today after a visit to Washington, where he held his first face-to-face meeting with President George Bush on Friday. It came after Bush heard the chancellor was at the White House to meet national security officials and invited him in.

A hard core of ultra-Blairites who are urging Miliband to throw his hat into the ring have issued Brown with three demands as the price of their support. They say they will “back off” and allow him a free run for the job if he complies.

They want him to prove he is “genuinely inclusive” and capable of working with those outside what they label his “bunker”; and they want him to “set out his stall” and provide a “real flavour” of what his premiership would look like. The third demand is for him to “take on board the criticisms and doubts” about whether he can win a general election.

Brownites have dismissed the call as “divisive nonsense”.

o Plans to sell off the Tote for £400m have been put on hold by the chancellor. He fears the buyers — a consortium of racecourse and racehorse owners, Tote managers and staff and Lloyds TSB — could dismantle the state-owned bookmaker in the hope of a quick profit. Insiders say he is reluctant to be associated with private equity in the run up to his leadership bid.

Additional reporting: Tom Baird

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