JACK STRAW has called for a peaceful handover of power in Downing Street and hinted that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown should reach a private understanding about its timing.

In an interview with The Times the new Leader of the Commons, who admitted that he had been surprised to be moved from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the recent reshuffle, spoke out strongly against the idea advanced by some Labour MPs that Mr Blair should set a public timetable for his departure. Fixing a date would create a “new sport” for the Conservatives and the media, giving them a target to aim at.

But asked whether there should be a private agreement between the two men, Mr Straw responded: “Pass.” Asked if he was willing to be an honest broker between them, he repeated: “Pass.”

Mr Straw is understood to accept the view of many that it should be for Mr Blair and Mr Brown to sort out the future.

Asked if the transition could be peaceful, he said: “I think it can be. It has got to be. They are hugely talented individuals. Labour could not have achieved what it has done without them.” He was now slightly more confident that there would be an “orderly transition”, he explained, “because the boat gets rocked and people realise we are all in the same boat.”

He spoke amid signs of a thaw in relations between No 10 and No 11. Yesterday Mr Blair gave Mr Brown a big say over law and order policies in what his allies saw as a further cooperative move towards the transition. In his speech on criminal justice the Prime Minister said that Mr Brown would have charge of long-term talks on reform with the police.

Mr Straw also spoke of his “mixed emotions” at being switched from the job he had “loved” for five years. Asked about suggestions that he had been moved at the insistence of the US Administration, Mr Straw said: “I do not think they are true. I am as certain as I can be that they are not true. The fact that I have a close relationship with Condoleezza Rice does not mean that I agree with everything she says.”

But his words confirmed suspicions that Mr Straw was less than happy at the timing of his departure. He dismissed as “nonsense” the idea that he had been punished for being seen as moving closer to Mr Brown. “I have made it my business to get on with fellow members of the Cabinet,” he said.

He had expected to do another year before moving to the post he now holds. He and Mr Blair had discussed the prospect after the election. “But things don’t always work out as calmly as they appeared at the time of the general election.”

Mr Blair had had to make a number of “enforced changes” in the reshuffle. “That was Tony’s explanation for shifting me at this stage, as well as the fact that there was greater urgency about strengthening Parliament and the relationship between Parliament and government, and hot potatoes like House of Lords reform.”

Mr Straw said that he had been surprised both to be appointed Foreign Secretary and at the timing of his departure. “I did not expect to get the job in the first place. That was Tony’s idea and I am for ever grateful. After a tricky first six months, I came into my own.”

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