TONY BLAIR was given one of his worst Commons batterings yesterday as it emerged that he and Gordon Brown are holding tentative talks about the handover of power.

Labour MPs were deflated, exhibiting a marked lack of support for their leader, as David Cameron exploited Labour’s drubbing in last week’s local elections and the subsequent demands from the parliamentary party for Mr Blair and Mr Brown to sort out their differences. In a further setback for Mr Blair, he was urged by senior backbenchers last night to rein in John Reid, his new Home Secretary.

At a meeting with Labour’s parliamentary committee, the party’s elected “shop stewards”, Mr Blair was told that Mr Reid’s attacks last weekend, in which he suggested that those calling for a timetable for Mr Blair’s departure were old Labour dinosaurs, were unacceptable. A committee source said that there was fury over Mr Reid’s behaviour, which had contributed to the backlash against Mr Blair.

It is understood that Mr Blair and Mr Brown have tiptoed around the subject of the transition in recent days but there have been no discussions about a precise timetable. The two met to discuss pensions yesterday and it is thought that they went on talk about the week’s events.

John Prescott is assumed widely to be the referee in the coming discussions but it is understood that Lord Soley, the former chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, who called on the two to get their act together on Monday, could emerge as a intermediary who would keep the PLP informed of progress.

There are again signs of bad blood between the camps representing both men. The Brownites accuse Blairite “ultras” of trying to present Mr Brown as anti-reform and painting him into a position on issues such as pensions and nuclear energy that will mean that he is seen as a loser when deals are announced. They also allege that some of Mr Blair’s supporters, particularly those whose jobs depend on him staying, are “in denial” over the changed landscape at Westminster and do not understand that Mr Blair can no longer stay in office for as long as he likes.

The Blairites, meanwhile, accuse the Brownites of being more interested in getting their man into No 10 than in Labour’s electoral standing. They point out that despite Mr Blair’s concession in promising Mr Brown “ample” time to prepare for the next general election, some leading Brown supporters have kept up the public pressure on him.

In the Commons David Cameron said that the problems in the criminal justice system and health service were a symptom of a government that had been paralysed. He asked Mr Blair to say why he did not trust Mr Brown to take over from him now as Prime Minister. Mr Blair said that he would not debate his departure with him and, in an admission of his plight, said that there were enough lining up to do that.

Times Recommends

• Milk: do we need a dairy godmother?
• DIY: the women doing it for themselves
• First double portrait of Princes unveiled