MARGARET BECKETT calls on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown today to organise a smooth transition of leadership power in a way that helps the Labour Party.

The Foreign Secretary, in an interview with The Times, strongly disagreed with Charles Clarke’s assessment that Mr Blair had lost his sense of purpose and direction. She suggested that the former Home Secretary’s remarks, also in an interview with The Times, may have been prompted by his dismay at losing a job that he was desperate to keep.

She accepted that there are people in the party “who are unhappy about various particular things”. But when asked when Mr Blair should stand down she replied that there were few people in the party “who have got a hard-and-fast view of when it should be”.

Asked whether Mr Blair and Mr Brown could carry out the smooth and peaceful transition that the Parliamentary Labour Party had demanded after the local elections, Mrs Beckett replied: “I think they can do that,” adding: “I certainly hope they will do that.”

Asked whether the party will expect Mr Blair and Mr Brown to give signals at the autumn party conference that show that they are preparing the handover, she said: “I think that is for Tony and Gordon.”

Mr Blair denied yesterday that he had experienced his “Geoffrey Howe moment” when Mr Clarke spoke out about his concerns over the Government’s direction. He rejected the claim that he had lost direction and insisted that it was time for the Government to “calm down, hold our nerve and get on with governing”.

Mr Clarke had used interviews to voice his irritation over his dismissal as Home Secretary and to suggest that Mr Blair has suffered a series of blows to his authority from which he may be unable to recover. He told The Times: “I do think there is a sense of Tony having lost his sense of purpose and direction, so my advice to him is to recover that sense of purpose and direction and that remains the best option.”

The Tories said that his remarks were comparable to the dramatic resignation speech made by Sir Geoffrey Howe in the House of Commons, which triggered the sequence of events leading to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.

Asked whether he had just had his “Geoffrey Howe moment”, Mr Blair replied firmly: “No. I actually have a very great regard for Charles, both for what he did in government and afterwards. I simply felt he had to move from his position for the reasons I gave at the time.”

Speaking at a 10 Downing Street reception for members of the British Society of Magazine Editors, Mr Blair said: “We are a year [on] from a general election. We have got three years, if not more, before the next general election. What we should do is calm down, hold our nerve and get on with governing.”

Mrs Beckett said that she did not agree with Mr Clarke’s remarks about Mr Blair. “I do not think there is any indication that he has lost a sense of purpose and direction. Indeed from my present vantage point the direction he gave me about wanting me to use the diplomatic channels to pursue issues like climate change was absolutely clear and is part of a much bigger picture. I do not have the impression that he has lost direction or interest at all.”

She went on: “I have great respect and affection for Charles. But I think what happens with former ministers is that they feel a natural sense of dismay, particularly in Charles’s case because he made plain that he felt he should have been allowed to remain.”

Downing Street tried to play down Mr Clarke’s remarks. Mr Blair’s spokesman said that he had made plain at the time of his dismissal that he was disappointed and it was no surprise that he should express it now.

Whenever problems arose in a department the Prime Minister had to decide whether a change of leadership was necessary and in this case he had decided that it was. But he had offered Mr Clarke other jobs, which he had declined, and that was his choice.

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